Fate That We Make
by Writin' Addict
Summary: Two years into the future, Derek gets a phone call that changes John's life. If it's for the better remains to be seen. AU John/OC
1. Prologue

Prologue

No fate but what we make

AU: Man, maybe if I get this out on paper I can get it out of my head. Or maybe not. Any hoot I hope u guys like it and want to read more, cause there will be more. And if the ages and dates don't match up plaese just go with it. Its time travel for crying out loud.

Disclaimer: No I don't own the Sarah Connor chronicles, cuz if I did these is what it would look like.

Prologue

2015, three years after Judgment Day

Her life centered on computers and learning about them. Her dad was some big time programmer before the world ended and with only the two of them stuck in the shelter together there was very little to do. Mom was visiting Washington D.C. when the bombs fell just after Kat's fifth birthday. At least she didn't find out what happened, what living after the end times meant.

Kat had forgotten what her mother did for a living. She was gone. It wasn't important.

Neither was grass and fresh fruit. It all fell under the category of 'gone'. Her father had taught her, along with other lessons in life, that if it was gone it didn't matter. It never mattered. And that's how Kat, a small child when war was declared, managed to forget everything that came before.

Her life centered on learning the one thing her father was willing to teach her. Computers inside and outside. "we have to win this war. To win we have to be able to write in their language, speak in their code, but think randomly as only a human can," her father preached the lesson and it became her religion.

Until the day her father didn't come home. He had gone out to find more food, and taking eight year old Kat was too dangerous. Instead, a boy on the brink of manhood stumbled down the stairs of their home. He said her father was gone.

And for the first time since Judgment Day Kat cried all about something that didn't matter.

Or maybe it did.

…..

Derek would think about her sometimes. When something in the present would make him smile, he would think 'man, she would love this.' But then again maybe she had it better off not remembering, not knowing what was gone. That made her special.

It made her smile when fresh water sources were found or when the guys would make some asinine joke about living in hell. It wasn't hell, she would say, it was home. My life was about fighting the war. She patch all the squad when they got hurt, and as she grew up male eyes lingered on her curves a little to long for Derek's liking.

For the six years he thought Kyle was dead, she became his only family. The little girl he found in that bunker after a HK had killed her father became his whole life, like Kyle had been before. He could take on the world as long as those green eyes looked up to him. Her father dieing breath begged the teenaged boy to protect his little girl knowing that the life blood was flowing through his wounds to fast to last.

It was the best promise a Reese had managed to keep.

Still, he couldn't bring himself to tell the Connors about her. His Katrina. Even after two years, the right time never seem to present its self. What kind of man doesn't tell his nephew he has an aunt. Doesn't tell the woman he loves that he has a sister.

No wonder Kyle couldn't fit everything about his life into two days with Sarah. Derek still hadn't managed it after two years. He'd think about her birthday, wondering if the anyone in the house even picked up on his mood. "man, now she's like two."

He didn't think about her age much, just one of the many things that gave him headaches about time travel. She was sixteen when he jumped back in time, and the last they said to each other were an argument about Kyle and what had happened to him. "why didn't she tell me? Did she even know?" he muttered to himself in the night wishing he could take back everything he had said to her.

Connor had taken away his whole family, and yet he had given him something else. The truth. Given him the tools to find out what had happened, why it was needed. Given him a part of Kyle back. Given Derek back 2007 and in this time he was as happy as he could get.

Still, he wanted her back.

Sarah didn't ask questions about why sometimes he didn't come to bed. She figured that it was the nightmares. Derek didn't have the heart to correct her. Now, he stood in the kitchen in sweat pants drinking a cold beer, thinking about the one thing that he couldn't get back even if they stopped Skynet.

His phone started buzzing on the counter, starling him out of his reflections. He shot the piece of tech a curios look. Everyone that he knew was currently asleep with the exception of Carmen keeping her nightly patrol of the property.

He picked up the phone and checked the caller ID. No help there probably a pay phone.

He debated answering, afraid of what could be on the other end. Against his better judgment he opened the line and waited on the other end. A voice took a second to answer to figured out he was there.

"Um, I don't know the date, but Derek," a hushed female voice carried over the wire, "Its me."

The phone slipped from his grip.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: A family reunion of sorts

Chapter 1: A family reunion of sorts

John woke early in the morning out of habit. It had only been a few weeks since he had graduated high school, and still he was getting up in time to get to class. It helped get a start on the day, but most days he didn't know what that would hold. He was drifting through the days with no plans of tomorrow.

The future leader of mankind was bored.

He swung his feet off the bed and headed to the shower. His mother's door was closed and Cameron was staring out the window in the kitchen. So he added all of this together, along with the fact that Derek rarely got up this early and figured the bathroom would be free for at least the next few minutes and walked right in to get ready for a long boring day ahead.

He thought wrong. John suddenly found himself staring as a strange young girl stood in the middle of the small room covered only with towel. His eyes traveled across her skin, taking in the scars and curves, shoulder length dirty blond hair and green eyes. He knew that everything down to the few tattoos would be burned into his memory.

"That'll be a dollar."

"Huh," John shook himself out of his daze and looked the mystery girl in the eyes, willing himself not to look away.

"Well, if you're gonna stare, I might as well charge for the peep show," and suddenly John felt even more self conscience.

"Sorry I didn't know you were in here." John turned around and started to leave. Then something else occurred to him. "Why are you in our bathroom?"

"I'm a friend of Derek's and he said this was his safe house. He didn't mention you though." Well, if Derek and Cameron didn't think she was a threat, John was going to get out of that steamy room and go get some breakfast. So he shrugged and left.

As he wandered into the kitchen, Cameron found somewhere else to be. John replayed every moment in the bathroom in his head. A strange girl just appear in the house and no one said anything, not even a note had been left on the fridge. Something was defiantly up, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. Maybe it was the fact that most girls screamed and threw things whenever someone walked in on them naked and he had escaped unscathed.

Resistant fighter. Soldier from the future. Was that it? But as much as he raked his mind he couldn't remember a barcode. Then the door opened down the hall opened a she stepped out into the hall in what looked like Derek's sleep clothes, flannel sleep, wife beater and faded long sleeve button up shirt. No help looking for the tattoo now.

She came down the hall and pulled herself up on the counter. "Bathroom's free."

"I can see that," John pulled a mug out of the cabinet, and poured some of the brown heavenly brew that Carmen made that morning into it. "You want some?"

"Coffee?" she peered into liquid for a moment as if she hadn't seen anything it before and shook her head.

"So, now I know what you look like naked, that you're a friend of Derek's who isn't here right now, and that you don't like coffee and I still don't know your name." John thought he pulled the cool like-I-really-care-what-your-name-is tone successfully, but inside he was dieing to know. A force was pulling him to her, and right now it was down to meager curiosity.

"Kat, and if you had asked earlier I would have told you."

"Your name is Kat?" John took a sip from his cup and tried to clear his mind. "Is that a nick name or something?"

"I think its short for Katrina."

"You don't know."

"Who doesn't know what?" Sarah cruised into the kitchen and snatched a mug a well and prepared her own start to the day. And stopped short when she noticed Kat on the other side of the kitchen. "Who is she?"

"Holy piles of flaming horse shit," Kat slid down off the counter and took a step toward Sarah. "You're Conner's …. Then that would make you…" directing her gaze to John. "Derek's hours left on this earth are numbered."

"That being said Mom," John just took it in stride. "I don't think she's a Terminator sent back to use our hot water and babble at us."

"But how'd she get in here."

"Derek let me in, said it was his safe house and that I should clean up some."

"You're a resistance fighter." Sarah looked the girl over doubtfully. She didn't look like she could fight her way out of a paper sack.

On that note, the uncle of future general Connor walked in the front door carrying a couple of grocery bags. He walked into the kitchen and set the bags down on the kitchen island, surveying the situation he had created by not waking the house up before going to the store. Honestly, he didn't think that the store run would take as long as it did. There were a lot of little things to pick up. "So, has everyone had a chance to introduce themselves?"

"No, but we'll figure everything out." Kat peered into the sacks that had taken Derek on hour to retrieve. "What ya get?"

"Everything a girl could need to start a life in 2009." Derek began pulling stuff for the bag. "Toothbrush, a set of clothes, various brushes, some reading material: all you're missing is a fake ID and a cell phone, but we should have that together by the end of the week."

Kat nodded her head and seemed mesmerized by the shiny plastic packaging of the toothbrush. That left Sarah to get some answers. "How did she get here?"

"Time jumped," Kat stated matter-of-factly. Derek filled in the rest. "She called last night on my cell and needed to be picked up."

"Well, how she'd get your number?" John watched as she pulled a cheap bottle of body spray out of Derek's bag, and moved like she was in a daze. Remembering the "time lag" he felt when he jumped forward, he moved to help unload the rest of the contents. Derek wasn't kidding about everything a girl could need. "It not like we're listed."

"Connor told me when he outlined my mission." Kat open a pack of cupcakes and took a bite. "Wow these are great. Did you get any more?" And started rummaging through the growing pile with more interest.

Sarah reached forwarded a grabbed her arm by the wrist. "And what's your mission?" The females locked stares for a moment and when Kat didn't answer right away Sarah pulled on her arm dragging her upper body across the table. Or would have if John hadn't intervened. "Mom, chill."

Derek stepped in on Kat's behalf pushing Sarah as far away as he could. "Calm down, she's not keeping anything from us or stalling. She just needs a little time to straighten her head out. Something about jumping makes it hard to think."

John wanted to why she was here through and after shook her head and appeared to get some things figured out. He tried a different tactic. He waited.

"Connor told me that I had to go back. When I got here I was to call Derek, met up with young John Connor and help."

"Help with what exactly?"

"She's a tech geek, not a soldier. Maybe something Connor taught her will come in handy?" Derek had gotten in the habit of refer to future John only by his last name.

"So, John just sent her back here and didn't tell her what she needed to do." Sarah looked the girl over again. "Would he do something like that?"

"He did with me." Derek understood now why he didn't have specific orders. There was just too much to tell. Kat had pulled herself together again and chewed absently on her sugary snack. "Alright, how about some ground rules?"

"I've been here for a little over three hours and you're got rules already?" It was easy for Kat to slip into a bickering banter with Derek. "Boy, you're just a stick in the mud."

"One, until you get ID you either stay here or within shouting distance of one of us," he stated gesturing to the three people in the room.

"And why is the eldest Reese such a stick in the mud? I know it's not in the genes."

"Pay attention. Two, no guns until I know you're not going to shoot the first car that backfires and you brush up a little."

"Derek just because Connor kept me chained to a key board for the last three years doesn't mean I'm rusty."

"Rules are rules."

"Rules that you just made up." She leaned her hands on the island and started pushing buttons. "Kyle was a lot more fun and he…"

"Kyle's also a lot more dead." Derek caught her eye and proceeded to stare Kat down. "Is that how you wanna end up, little sis? Because I can promise you while there not be metal out there with orders to kill or capture every human it finds, there are still a hundred ways a pretty little thing like you can get hurt."

John was back peddling from that rant. He had another relative alive and well in this time. The Connor household sure had some odd family reunions. At least this time the long lost aunt was shot and bleeding to death in the middle of the kitchen. 'Thank God for small favors.'

But it was Sarah that vocalized bewilderment John was feeling. "She's your sister? And you're just now telling us this knowing what Kyle meant to us."

"Yeah, Cameron said your only blood relation was my dad."

"After Judgment Day, some people lost everything. So sometimes folks would take in an orphan, and you became family cause you said so. No one questions it really." Kat was the first to speak up and shine a light how she had become a Reese.

"So after I lost Kyle to the machines and found Kat holed up in the shelter her dad build, we were the only family we had for a while." Derek finished out the story. "And when I got Kyle back, we were happier that most."

"One big dysfunctional family." Kat sat down in a chair by the dining table. "That's until Connor starting pulling us apart. Hey don't look so guilty over there. You told me why everything had to play out the way it did after Derek jumped back. You didn't know at first but due to the fact that the programming room where me and you spent most of the day and time displacement device were so close, we tell when the time line changed."

"What changed?" John didn't want to think about the fact that he had seen his sort of aunt naked so he focused in something bigger. "Did we stop Judgment Day?"

"No, but Skynet was weakened by whatever it is you guys have been doing." Kat eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas. "Derek we've won."

"What?"

"Mark your calendars, cause in 2029 Liberation Day happens."

A/n: Well that seems like a good place to stop for now. See you next time.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: So We Win in Twenty Years

Chapter 2: Chat it up

Liberation day were probably the best two words John had heard his whole life. There was an end. It wasn't in sight. It wasn't even a light at the end of the tunnel. It was an idea in the distance. The fact that he didn't lead mankind into extinction, that was cause enough for hope right there.

"How?" Derek took a seat across from Kat at the table. "How did we win?"

"Hacked Skynet through a direct feed, uploaded some serious code into the mainframe, and that took most everything down for the time we needed." Kat leaned towards Derek speaking as if no one else was in the room. "Told you that's how we would win."

"Wish I could've seen it." Derek's hand drifted over the wood and grasped Kat's.

"It was something, but I can't really talk about it that much." Kat tugged her sleeve up her arm absently and let it fall back to the table. "Wouldn't want to change one of the best days in human history."

That's when telltale barcode came into partial view. All the gaiety that Derek was feeling about the end of the war flew out the window. He grabbed her left wrist and pulled the sleeve high enough to fully expose the laser burn. It skin had fully healed and the marking were no longer raised. The tattoo was at least a year old. His little sister had been captured by the machines.

"When?" The word wretched itself from his lips, while his eyes stayed trained on the brand those metal monsters burn into her flesh remembering the pain that burn through his own arm when he was captured and brought to that little house of horrors what seemed like a lifetime ago.

"About six months after you jumped." Kat pulled away not wanting to face the man that had been like family to her. She knew what was now running through his mind. She knew where the blame would fall. "I went out with a recon team looking for more tech to salvage. HK's pinned us, next thing I knew I woke up in some holding area chained to a wall."

The salt and pepper shakers that had been sitting on the table flew into the wall when Derek lashed out and moved away from the table. He promised to protect her, to keep her safe. Now, she had been at the mercy of the machines who did who knows what to her, while Derek was in the past living the good life. "Connor said he would keep you safe."

"He didn't know until after the team had left." Kat crossed her arms and John and Sarah who had been forgotten by the Reese family watched as all emotion drained from her face, leaving little of the teenager they discovered in their house that morning. "What was I suppose to do, Derek? Sitting back safe and sound, while everyone I ever knew and cared about sacrificed their lives to save mine. What makes me so special?"

Derek turned turn from Kat and came face to face with Sarah, remembering who else was in the room. He calmed himself, trying to regain control. John could count on one hand the number of times he had seen Derek lose it like that. Even when he was ranted about the machines or how Cameron had to go, he maintained his composure. Sarah could understand the hurt and rage in Derek's eyes. The girl that had just waltzed into their lives was a part of Derek. Even through the same blood didn't run through their veins, they were family. It would be the same if Sarah found out the John had been hurt.

"Where?" Derek knew no matter what the answer he wouldn't like it, but the machines where nothing if not organized, so each of their prisons served a different propose.

There was no inflection of tone when Kat nearly breathe the word, "Lakeview" as if saying the word brought back every memory of the place. A muttered 'damn' escaped from Derek.

"What's Lakeview?" John voiced to the room.

"It's a medical research site." All heads turned to Cameron who stood in the door way as she finally spoke up.

"Why would Skynet be interested in medicine?" Sarah directed the terminator.

"Skynet had several studies active at Lakeview including mass termination, biological weapons, reproduction and population control, and efficient procurement protocols all of which fall under the classification of medical." Cameron raddled off the list without blinking in eye.

"So defiantly not somewhere you would want to end up." Sarah didn't want to imagine what any of that would have to do with the girl sitting at the table. She was pretty sure that it would give her nightmares if she thought too long about it.

"No, most don't make it out of there alive." Derek piped in. "Those that do make it, barely last a week. So, how did you escape?"

"I didn't. Connor came for me." Kat answered, "I was only in for three days and Connor came for me. It started the offensive. When we really started fighting back and taking ground."

"Why?" John questioned the girl that he knew nothing about. Everything he knew about fighting the war meant making sacrifices for the better good. "Why come after you?"

"You promised Derek you would keep me safe when you sent him back." Kat got up from the table and started sorting through the bags that Derek brought in. "Promised Kyle too. You would have done anything for Kyle."

"That wasn't the only reason." Cameron stated still standing at the doorway and staring at Kat in the way that Sarah had long since filed under thinking. "You're early."

"Nice to see you too Cameron." Kat finished pulling stuff out of the bags and folded the bags to lie on the counter.

"According to my database you and John Connor do not meet until 2011."

"Anything else you want to share?" Derek said taking an annoyed tone with the metal.

"Yes, she is two year older than she should be."

0000000

"So do you have a theory? I mean you've know me for how long. Surely you have a theory." John was half kidding as he pestered Kat in the food court of the mall. Kat only had the clothes that Derek had brought that morning, so John's uncle sent both of them out to get more. So far it was fun.

Kat had no sense of fashion, but she took everything in like it was her first day out in the world and it might as well had been. She had shared on the way over that her earliest memories were in a fall out shelter, mostly likely due to the trauma of the world ending. So even a cheap burger and fry meal had her raving.

"No, seriously, that's what makes John Connor great; being completely unpredictable." Kat chuckled as she sipped on a soda and smiled in delight. "You do not know how good this is."

"It's just the standard mall rat junk." He bit off a piece of fry and chewed as he talked.

"This isn't even all that great."

"Try eating nothing but garbage and MRE's for a few years then we'll talk about not great."

"I stand corrected." John was surprised at how easy it was to fall into conversation with Kat. Most of the time he was so careful about what he said and did that he didn't have time to have fun. With her he got be himself, not John Baum or General Connor, just John and that was something he hadn't had in his life.

"Connor did say something about now the world was safe he was going to make his life better." Kat put down the plastic cup. "Do you really want to talk about this? I mean from what Cameron said that future's gone. We're in a new timeline now."

"Was my life so bad?" John turned a nearby chair towards him and put his feet in it.

"In the most recent shift, your mom and Derek survived Judgment Day, you have as many friends as the leader of mankind can, and apart for the fate of world hanging on your shoulders it doesn't look so bad for ya." She followed suit trying not to stick out to much in a time she had no real experience in.

"But there's a but in there somewhere." He gestured like he was pointing out the exception.

"Well, you never got married and as long as I've known you there hasn't been anyone that I could tell." Suddenly, Kat's shoes were fascinating. "You seemed lonely."

John never thought about that. What did being the great general Connor mean on a personal level? Would he end up alone in the end? "Well, it's a good thing that we've got a new timeline then, cause I can work on that lonely thing."

"Another great thing about John Connor, you can send people back until you get it right." Kat brought her gaze back up to met John's. "Of course you have a few more decades to figure it out."

"Then I guess I should just sit back and enjoy the 'great' food of my time."

"I'll drink to that." Kat lifted her glass to meet John's in the air and sipped her soda with a smile on her face, thinking how much time had changed him. He was different without the burden that had been laid on his shoulders, without it he smiled more. They would have been friends if it hadn't been for the age difference; instead it was like having an uncle around to look after her. But this John was new and everything she had known about Connor was flying out the window.

"So is there anything else we can get while we're out." John said pulling her away from her thoughts. "Derek said you're a tech geek so maybe you want some computer equipment while we're out."

"Hum, new clothes, new tech; now all I need is a room of my own and I'll be in heaven."

"Well I guess that…"

"Hey Baum, it's been years since I've seen you." John didn't see Morris walk up to them in the food court and nearly jumped out of his seat when the young man addressed him. Besides growing a few more inches, the first friend he made since jumping forward still looked the same and still thought the same to. "You have all the luck. Another beautiful girl hanging around."

"Yeah, well it's not what it looks like." John struggled to find a way it let Kat in on the cover story without tipping Morris off to the fact that something was up. "She's just…"

"A friend of the family." Kat supplied quickly. "Sarah's putting me up for a little while."

"Dude, I wish my family had friends that looked like her." Morris grabbed an empty chair and flopped down in it. Then turned his attention to Kat. "How long have you known John?"

"I'm more interested in how long you've know John."

"We met in high school a few years ago." Morris just chuckled to himself and continued on, "I had a bad thing for his sister."

"Really, did anything ever happen?" Kat asked in a perfect gossip girl tone.

"Na, we were supposed to go to the prom together, but she never came back to school." Miles didn't seem too broken up about the rejection from years before. "Did that have anything to do with me?"

"No man, our house burned down, some kind of electrical fire, and Mom decided to home school us for a while." John lied easily enough these days, after all he had done it all his life. "Don't tell me you still have a crush on her."

"No, got over that a long time ago." Morris checked his watch and whistled when he saw the time. "Sorry dude, I gotta run." He pulled a pen out of his pocket and jotted a number down on a napkin. "Give me a call when you get a chance. We can catch up some more."

"Sure thing."

"If he doesn't call you mind I do." Kat picked the napkin off the table. "I don't have many friends in LA."

Miles just nodded and walked away. John waited until he was out of ear shot before he spoke. "What was that about?"

"I'm helping, as ordered." Kat said instead of answering his question. "You really should give him a call."

"Why?" John got the feeling that she didn't view him as General Connor.

"Because he could become one of your strongest commanders." Kat held the napkin out to him and waited for him to take it. After he snatched the paper from between her fingers, she continued, "Plus friends are a good thing."

John couldn't see Morris leading troops into battle, but there were a lot of things he couldn't see like three billion dead in three days. Faith was never something John was good that. He never believed in God, because what god would let machines take over the world like they would. Faith in family never formed because it was always him and his mother against the world. Faith in himself was even harder because in no way did he feel that he could one day lead man kind to victory.

After all faith was belief in something you couldn't see or prove.

But Kat had faith; John could see it in her eyes and hear it in her voice. It wasn't in a harder power or in humanity even. It pulled him to her in a way that defied explanation. It was a faith in him.

00000

Remember feedback is always a good thing.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Our Brother's Birthday

Life had settled into the closest thing to normal that the Connor household got. With only three bed rooms, Kat had opted to sleep on the couch which she insisted was the most comfortable surface she ever passed out on. With the sleeping arrangements figured out, she set up her new computer on the kitchen table and worked tireless with John doing what ever it was that geeks do. Derek spent his days tracking leads and helping train John and Kat in combat skills.

In short, he was happy. Happiness as far as Derek was concerned never lasted, and he prepared himself likewise. After a week when Kat's ID and cell were handed out to the eighteen year old, Derek's free time went to waiting for the other shoe to drop. With the Connors around, after the time he spent with them, he knew it wouldn't take long.

Kat was still adjusting herself. She tried not to see everyone around her as walking dead after seeing the carnage produced when the bombs fell. Looking at the city now was disorientating since landmarks she knew for her childhood had yet to become the twisted scared remains of building. Instead she set her mind to trying to help John.

Some days it was long discussions about how metal thinks, how the Terminator organized their minds. Others were spent talking about the future and what would come in general. Most importantly, she made sure that there were still days they got to go and enjoy the world.

Sarah picked her brain to sometimes about the new timeline she came from. Did she still die from cancer? What she did with her life? All her questions boiled down to one thing. Did she do right by John? Was he prepared? Did she need to change anything?

Kat answered both Sarah and John's questions like a student that didn't want to be called on in class. So she answered most questions by referring back to the fact that according to Cameron Connor had changed the timeline again.

Still it always caught her attention when Kyle's name was even mentioned in passing. Her life now with Derek was nothing to complain about, but part of her heart would always belong to the man that said the words that changed her life, "come with me if you want to live." The girl she had been in the pre-Kyle years would be shocked to see herself now.

The thoughts running in her head as she wandered into the kitchen for her morning coffee caused her to lean in a peck Derek on the cheek. She leaned against the counter beside him, close enough to touch, and stared with him out the window. For a few moments they stood as stone guardians of the sleeping teens with weight of the world on their shoulders. A responsibility that had tried them together, along with memories of a man long lost. But it was Derek who broke the silence and wrapped his free arm around her waist.

"I know you well enough to know something's on your mind." He sipped his coffee but his eyes never left the window.

"Time is confusing." Everything on her mind boiled down to time.

Derek chuckled and agreed, "Tell me about it." Sarah noticed that he had something on his mind that morning too. "Just take everything as it comes, and don't think about it to much."

"Thinking never was your strong suit." Sarah said nodding her head, trying to keep her voice as steady as possible. The quiet between the storms keep her sane, and during those times she couldn't resist picking on Derek lightheartedly.

Derek knew she didn't mean it and didn't say anything. She was every bit the woman of legend. She was also more. The tales he had heard about the woman beside him were told through the eyes of her son, and children never really see the weaknesses in their parents. She was thrown into her role as mother of the savior as much as John had, but unlike John she had embraced it from the start, sacrificing for her son and never looking back.

The rare tender moment between them was broken when the bathroom opened down the hall signaling that Kat would soon come looking for her breakfast. Derek pressed a kiss to Sarah's temple and started to move away just as Kat waltzed into the room.

"No need to act like horny teenagers afraid to get caught," Kat stated pulling her wet hair back into a messy pony tail. "I know you two are getting hot and heavy."

"Who says we're sneaky around?" Sarah didn't think they were hiding anything; after all they were sharing a bed. They just didn't act very affectation out in the open. Then she saw the mischief's gleam in Kat's eye.

"The three of us shared a room smaller than this kitchen in the future." Derek moved to the opposite counter and retrieved a mug of hot water out of the microwave and passed it to his sister, who was pulling a tea bag out of a container. Sarah knew who the third without Derek saying anything. It was another piece in the puzzle that made up Kyle Reese in her mind.

"That's how I know that both of them snore loud enough in wake the dead." Kat finished making her cup of tea and sipped it idly as her mind drifted away.

"Who snores?" Sure enough the last human member of the house wandered into the kitchen looking for his daily dose of caffeine. However he was ignored as Derek and Kat remained lost in thought. So he poured a cup pf coffee and took a seat at the table.

The room stayed in silence for the next few minutes while the Connors wondered what was on the Reese's collective mind. Sarah was just about to leave when Kat spoke up.

"I was thinking maybe we should do something." She sat on the counter sipping the tea she drank instead of coffee to get her going in the morning since she was still use to sleeping all day. "You know this is the first time we've been together since…"

"Yeah, I know."

"Don't you think that he would have wanted us to do something. Ever since we all hooked up we've done something today. Even if it is the usual get drunk til everyone passes out."

"You're underage."

"Never stopped me before." Kat braved a smile that faded after Derek refused to take the bait. She leaned forward on the island and set down her mug. "We need to put his ghost to rest. Let him go."

"He was my brother." Derek stated in a flat tone. Sarah couldn't find it in herself to leave the kitchen now. Kyle's birthday, no wonder the Reese's looked down in the mouth today. "Maybe I don't want to let it go."

"Maybe he would want you to. Do you really think he would want us sit around all day depressed?" Kat threw up her arms when Derek sat in silence. Before she left the kitchen in favor for the living room, she shot back, "You know he wouldn't. He would want us to fight."

John leaned against the doorframe as Kat passed him, thinking about the new tidbit he had learned about his father. She was right about Kyle's ghost. He felt the absent of his father everyday. John watched Derek perform his finest impression of terminator staring out the window and felt connected with him. They both clung to the memory of a man long since dead. John to the void that no one could fill and the hope that they would meet in the future. Derek to a brother he had known all his life and strove to protect after Judgment Day.

He turned toward the living room and watched Kat fold her bedding away. John spent the last week trying to understand what he felt about her. He was drawn to her, as if she had a gravity about her. She didn't give him any sign that she felt the same. Plus she was sent back to help him not date him. Kat surely had better things to be here for.

Still there was something important he needed to share with her, and today seemed right enough. First he had to shower, then he get her out of the house.

000000

Grass was the first thing she noticed when she jumped back in time. It felt cool and soft against her skin, and for the first time in her life she knew why people wanted to lay down in it. At the time that was all the thought that she had given it since she was naked and had to find Derek as quickly as possible. Looking out the truck window she was treated to an ocean of grass. The tombstones where lined perfectly in the sea and trees dotted the landscape. She could see why people laid their loved ones to rest here. She could also see what this place would be after the bombs fell on it, a wasteland.

John said he wanted to show her something, but she had no idea why they had left Cameron behind or why they were slowly cruising through a graveyard. She looked at the man behind the wheel, but didn't share her thoughts because they were too morbid. He slowed the car and glanced her direction as he pulled it to a complete halt.

"We're here," he spoke in a quiet voice that gave no indication of where here was. He opened his door and Kat followed suit. Once outside she breathed in the clean fresh air. She didn't know that a place of death could invoke a feeling this peaceful. In the future, it seemed like everything smelled. Either from the unwashed bodies of humans to concerned with drinking water to brother bathing in it or from death that seemed to lurk behind every corner. There were so many ways to die that had nothing to do with machines and every to do with how poorly equipped the resistance was to keep people healthy.

Kat followed John as he walked across the grass in between the rows of rock. When he started talk she just listened.

"My mom first told me about judgment day when I was five. I guess she figured I was too little to understand before. It was strange. I asked about my dad, you know the usual questions, 'who was he?', 'why wasn't he around?', and she sits me down and tells me about the end of the world. Now I know that she had to tell me the whole story or it wouldn't make any sense." John shoved his hands it in his jacket pockets and continued with his tale. "At first I didn't believe it. It was like it was a story she made up. What five year-old can believe he's the savoir of mankind? But she stood by it, and one day she said she would show me where he was buried. I was ten when we made it back in the states, and she got locked up in a mental hospital.

"Everybody told me she was crazy and I believed them, settled myself into foster care and tried to forget the nightmare she laid out for me a when I was little." John slowed his steps to a stop. Kat stopped as well beside him.

"What changed your mind?"

"A terminator spent three days trying to kill me. T-1000 I think was the model. I didn't know enough to be afraid. It didn't kick in till a week later how many times I came within an inch of dieing. When it did, I knew the nightmare, the story my mom told me when I was five, was real."

John turned toward Kat met her eyes briefly and turned his gaze earthward. Kat followed his line of sight and found a tombstone standing proud out of the grass. As Kat read the read on the stone, John started talking again.

"Before we left LA, she brought me here. Mom paid to have my dad buried here. She said she have added father to the list but she didn't know she was pregnant at the time. I haven't been out here since."

Etched into the stone words that pulled at Kat's heart, Kyle Reese, Fighter, lover and friend. No dates to note his birth or death, just words to summed up everything about the man she called brother. Her legs gave out and she slid down to the earth that he was finally able to rest under. He was there in the grass. "Why tell me all this?'

"There was no one else to tell." John placed a comforting hand on Kat's shoulder as tears started to roll from her eyes. "You're the only one who wouldn't try to make me understand why it had to happen."

Kat nodded a covered his hand with her own. Derek and Sarah would not have been able to listen to story without trying to make John see what they thought he should become. She just sat on the grass, taking the comfort he offered. Kat wiped the salt away from her cheeks and struggled to find her voice.

"Everyone thought me and Kyle were gonna get hitched. We didn't have the same connection and Derek and I did. We didn't know each other as long." Kat wrestled with how much to tell John about her and Kyle. "You've seen the way me and Derek act together. Kyle and I could talk for hours about anything like it was the most natural thing in the world. He was a few year older than me. Guess everybody took all that as a sign we were shacking up. Nothing would have ever come of it. It wasn't like we were in love or anything. But he was my best friend in the world."

Her voice gave out as the struggle to force the word over the lump in her throat became too hard. John didn't know what was worse; have nothing to remember him by or having to live with those memories. When it finally returned, Kat looked up at John and asked if she could have a little time alone which John was more than willing to give.

Kat watched as he started back to the truck until he was out of ear shot. Then she turned back to the stone that symbolize her friend. The words were hard to come by at first. How did someone pull everything that happened together and give it voice. Once they started there was no turning back.

"Kyle, you were the best friend I ever had. You traveled across time and found the woman you loved. Sarah's doing fine, you gave her the drive to fight and raise her son to be the man we need him to be. I would have never guess that you would end up being Connor's father, but it's true. I wish you could see him, but if you made it to heaven I guess you can. I'll look after him, not because mankind needs him but because he needs someone to save him. Some one to watch his back. Kyle, we never loved each other, I know that. We never loved anyone. When I'm with him its like I'm pulled to him, everything seems so right. Maybe we needed to go back in time to feel human again."

Kat having said everything she needed to sat in silence until a voice from behind crashed through it.

"Hey, Reese girl."

John tensed as a strange man walked up behind Kat as she sat in front of Kyle's grave. He reached for the handgun tucked into the back of his jeans, but before he could pull the gun and head to Kat's side the two exchanged and few brief words and headed his way. When they close enough, John listened in on their conversation.

"Figured you would turn up here one year if Connor sent you back," the young man speaking to her was John's height and carried himself with the posture of a soldier. "It was only a matter of when."

"John, this is Rico." Kat gestured in the general direction of the man beside her, but her tone was clearly annoyed. "Rico this is John Baum."

"You look familiar." Rico looked John over trying to place where he had seen John before. "Were you with the tunnel rats under 72nd St?"

Before John could answer either way, three shot rang out across empty graveyard. John ducked on instinct and looked toward the direction of the sound. Calmly walking across the grass, a man was closing in on the group with a gun trained on them. A Terminator. A thousand thoughts ran through his head as he wondered how a terminator had found him out here.

"Rico, you mindless idiot, how in the hell did you not know metal was tailing you?" Kat yelled at the newest member of the resistance that he had met. Even though the shots were aimed at Rico, John knew there was little hope of escaping alive since there was no way that a 9mm, the only weapon they had with them, was going to stop the metal assassin


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Run John

John had no idea how in the mad scramble to pile into the get away vehicle, Kat ended up driving and he was sitting in the passenger seat. And he was pretty sure that she was treating the Dodge like a Bradley assault vehicle from the way that she plowed through and wooden fence and jumped a few curbs in an effort to out run the metal monster that was firing at them. Given that terminators never stopped and the target was currently sitting in the back seat the afternoon was going to turn out much more interesting than he excepted.

After the first stressful thirty seconds, when the terminator gave up the foot pursuit and most likely started searching for a car to catch them in. Rico reached for his phone and was mid dial when Kat reached back and snatched the cell out of his hand. "It may have a fix on the number. We can't risk contact with the rest of your cell." She handed over the phone to John, who figured if the cell had been tagged the best thing would be to remove the battery so the GPS chip can't be used.

"What's the plan?" Rico pulled a desert eagle from underneath his jacket and was keeping a lookout out the back window as the shouted to the rest of the truck. "Cause we have maybe five minutes before that thing catches up."

"Do y'all have a weapon's cache in the area? Kat questioned as she weaved in and out of traffic, taking turns randomly in the hopes that it would throw the machine off the trail. After doing a quick mental inventory of everything his mom and Derek stored around the city, nothing came to mind that they could get to in time.

"Nothing, but there's a shotgun under the back seat along with a few extra clips." He supplied causing Rico to abandon his careful watch and retrieve and pass out the ammo.

"This ain't going to stop it."

"Aim for the left eye, maybe we'll get lucky and hit the chip." Kat supplied, later she was going to have to tell him just how she knew that. John suddenly felt like an amateur in the fighting for his life game, as the two future fighters debated the best way to

take down the metal that had them in its sights. "Three more minutes."

John barely had time to brace himself against the dashboard before Kat suddenly brought the truck to a halt next the curb. He shot her a puzzled look.

"John, run that way for two minutes then hide for six. Call Derek and tell him to get his ass over to the warehouses and bring whatever he needs to take the bastard down. It's not after you, you'll be fine." John couldn't believe what she was telling him. Another person in his life telling him to run. That's all his had done his whole life was run and hide. And he was sick of it. At some point he was going to stop and everything in him was screaming that he left them now _she_ would be helpless.

"No, I'm not going." John pulled the gun out of his pants and released the safety.

"John, you have to be safe." Kat pleaded with him, but each time she said his name he mind was even more made up. "This is not safe."

"I don't want to be safe anymore."

"Guys, I really hate to butt into this lover spat, but we have company coming and I'd like to live to see tomorrow." Rico voice had just a hint of panic and reminded John that they weren't alone.

"Fine," Kat once more out the truck in gear and took to the road paying attention to the speed limits. "Make the call."

That is just what John did. His mom picked up on the other end and after the code was exchanged he detailed everything that happened to her as Rico piped in from the back seat again. "He's not tech com is he?"

"No, he's not." John only half listened to the exchange as his mom started in on her usual rant about running.

"Then he's going to slow us down. You should have made him get out."

"He's done this kind of thing before. He'll fine." A brown Buick turned onto the street behind them and started to gain. "It doesn't matter anyway. Time's up. We're in this together now."

"Well your brother better show up soon or we're all dead." Rico slid the rear window open and took aim on the Buick's driver side window. As he fired on the terminator, John could hear the panic rise in her mother's voice as she asked where he was. He relayed Kat's message and hung up the phone.

"Mom and Derek will meet us there."

"Nice of you to take time out of our busy gun fight to call your mom."

"Just keep the triple 8 at a distance. We have to lure it away from these people so we can put up a real fight." Kat increased her pressure on the gas petal. "And for your information, we're lucky to have his mom."

Kat kept her eyes on the road taking verbal cues from Rico when to cut the terminator off. Besides feeling useless, John had to wonder were in the hell she had learned to drive. After the second near miss, he spoke up. "let me drive."

"Now's not the best time to get all macho." Kat spat back taking the truck into oncoming traffic.

"You and Derek both drive like shit. If you want to live, let me drive." John insisted and Kat cut back into the right hand lane, and nearly flipped the vehicle when she took a turn too fast and too sharp. Kat's eyes filled with panic as she managed to right the Dodge, but she lost the terminator for the moment. She nodded and that was all the go ahead John needed.

He secured his weapon and slid as close as he could get to Kat. John moved his foot under hers and claimed control of the pedal. When she surrendered to his grip on the steering wheel, she ducked her head under his arm and slid into the passenger seat. John was sure that every inch of her body had rubbed against him and even with a machine bearing down on them he swore he could smell the candy apple body spray she wore.

Now that she wasn't busy driving, she pulled her shoulder length hair up into a ponytail while staring out the back. Something wasn't right. When John glanced over and caught the look on her face, he knew something wasn't adding up and the machine should have resumed the pursuit by now. Next thing he knew, Kat had leaned in close enough to send any other teenage boy's hormones racing. She pulled the pistol from his pant line and flew to the passenger window, rolling down the glass she called to the backseat. "Rico, front."

That's when John glimpsed a brown car cutting across the street in front, blocking the way forward. Kat threw her upper body out the window, braced herself against the edge, and emptied a clip into their stocker. John put his entire weight on the gas pedal in the hopes that the truck's bigger mass would carry it through the smaller car. Just before metal smashed into metal, John grabbed a handful of Kat blue jean jacket and pulled her back inside the cabin.

Lucky, the trio had reached their destination, no one was around to get hurt in the accident or to witness the event. The Buick, the front end pushed by sideways the force of the impact into the building near the street, had pinned the terminator's legs across it laid face down on the hood. The Dodge however didn't fair so well. It pushed through the crash, but t-boned a telephone pole a hundred feet up the street.

Rico was the first to recover from the impact. He pulled himself up from the floor board were he had fallen. He surveyed the scene, thanking all the gods he could think of he survived. He reached over the seat and patting John's shoulder to wake him. When John lifted head wincing at the pain that seemed to explode all over his body, Rico tried his voice out. "Dude, I thought only Connor was that nuts."

Rico kicked open the back door and gathered the extra ammo, as John shook the cobwebs from his head and reached over to check on Kat. She still had a grip on the handgun she was firing earlier as she started to move, but before he could ask Kat wiped a smear of blood from her mouth. "I'm fine, John."

"Come on we gotta get you outta here." John help her out of the car, just as he reached for his phone to update Sarah, the sound of grinding metal cut through the silence like a knife. All three sets of eyes turn down the street as the terminator, now rebooted, pushed the car off his legs. Too shocked to move, John watched in slow motion as the mangled metal monster lifted its gun and fired off two shots, one of which winged Rico in the arm, then threw down the weapon. When it didn't pull out another weapon, John thanked God for small favors. At least now it would have to get up close to make the kill.

Rico raise the shotgun and fired the remaining shells into the machines center mass with no effect. Then they ran as fast as three people who had just survived a brutal car crash could, with the now injured terminator dragging its leg behind. John half carried Kat as they searched for shelter in the maze of warehouses that stretched for blocks. They put a little distance in-between them and their attacker and ducked into one of the buildings and took stock of what little them had left.

"How long till Derek comes to save your sorry butt?" Rico asked as he threw down the shotgun after seeing that its ammo was depleted. John, even in the middle of this newest near death experience, was developing a distinct dislike for the guy.

"Too long." Kat stated as she pulled the clip out to check her remaining rounds. "Four left, and nothing else will work." She pushed the clip back in place in an ease that would have impressed a seasoned vet. John could see a visible pain she was in from the wreck and regretted the choice to plow into the Buick, but it couldn't be helped now. Even in the middle of the battle, he couldn't help thinking about of amazing she looked in knee high boots and a short denim skirt. The events of the day put her in a whole new light. Maybe something about being raise by a gun welding Amazon made a girl who could handle her self in a gun fight.

"So terminator experts, what do we do now?"

"I said lay low, play cat and mouse until back up arrives." Rico checked his gun and threw his head back against the thin sheet metal that made up the shell of the warehouse.

"Two rounds, can I just say we're screwed?"

"Shut up," John could hear the hiss in Kat voice as she addressed her fellow fighter. "It's not over till you dead."

"Yeah, yeah," Rico voice sure didn't reflect the words coming out of his mouth. "Hang in there baby, just like Connor said."

Before John could voice his confusion at the interaction between the two, the metal wall gave way as the metal forced its way through the wall behind Kat and Rico. The instinct to run over powered everything as he bolted blindly from the monster. He was aware that Rico was close behind him, but his heart stopped when three shots rang out echoing harshly against the metal skin of the warehouse. Then silence until a last shot was fired in the distance and Kat's pained screams reached his ears.

He wasn't even sure that she was still alive until the voice belonging to the terminator called out to them with a warning. "If either of you leaves the building, the female will be terminated outright, however I will trade her for the resistance fighter." John and Rico shared a look as they hide behind some crates as the machine dragged Kat into the center of space and kneeled down beside her. It placed a hand around her neck and called to them again. "She is one of your mates, rather pretty too. Her leg wound is not fatal, however without medical treatment she will dead in approximately twenty minutes."

The blood was slowly pouring out onto the floor from her thigh, and John could seen that time was pouring out of the bullet hole as he was crouched behind the boxes like a coward. The machine leaned in a spoke softly to Kat as she lay under him.

"John," her voice sounded pitiful and hopeless as she called his name, assumedly just like the triple 8 intended. A tactic to let them know that she was still alive and to drive them into doing something stupid. Rico tugged on his sleeve and gestured to the open door not far from where they were hiding. After shaking his head, John turned back to see the machine trying to get her to call of him again. "John, run."

Her life was quickly becoming the most important thing in his life and he would do anything to get her out of there alive. He grabbed Rico's gun out of his hand and put into motion a barely formed plan. He saw the panic in the other man's eyes and didn't care. Today, was the day he really started fighting.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Repeat

The moment the hand punched through the sheet metal Kat's panic overrode the muscles freezing them, leaving her unable to react in the first all important seconds. The boys with her fled without thinking, she saw them move out of the corner of her eye. And as the metal hand with its now shredded covering of flesh fastened onto her ankle all she could think was 'At least John got away.'

Two seconds later as the machine torn its way into the building, Kat recovered knowing that the precious seconds she had to live were going to be spent fighting. The restraining hand on her ankle brought back memories that she buried deep, memories of the first time she was captured and taken away. She tighten her grip on her weapon and aimed for the monster's face in vain hope that just maybe she could stop it right there in its tracks.

One. The first hit just to the left of the eyes, exposing the metal endoskeleton underneath. The terminator quickened its motions after seeing Kat bring the weapon to bear, not because it was afraid of being harmed, but to inquire the gun for itself. All the more reason to empty the clip.

Two. The second was closer to the mark, hitting right between the between the eyes. The adrenalin pouring through her veins slowed time down so that the second between the shots searched out for hours. The too strong metal hands were clawing at her calves pulling her closer, the terror as she was pulled caused her finger to tighten again on the trigger.

Three. It went wide burying itself somewhere in the metal skull as it entered in the underside of its jaw. Kat knew she was done. Connor didn't have an army to rescue her with, didn't have the knowledge to get outsmart the triple 8. John had yet to make that promise to keep her safe.

The gun was ripped from her hands with a force that could have easily broken her fingers if she resisted. The red glow of the eyes that looked down on her, analyzing, chased every thought out of her head. She fought back uselessly digging her fingers into flesh of the arms that held her down, kicking and struggling with everything in her power against the all to familiar hold.

She heard the last shot and she couldn't understand what happened until the blinding pain tore a scream from her lips. It was too much. The pain, the horror, the helplessness, it was all too much. Her mind shut down, shielding itself from the world.

It was too much like last time.

000000

Moans were the first to cut through the darkness. Last noise Kat's mind registered before she hit the pavement was blaster fire being exchanged between the two sides of the battle. She had ducked behind the burned out husk of the car and hoped a miracle would save the team that had taken her out of the tunnels. She wished Derek or Kyle were still here, they would come to rescue no matter what.

But as she opened her eyes and saw the ceiling shone bright white and she knew where ever she was it wasn't safe. Nowhere is the resistance was there a base that looked like this. Kat pressed her boot against the floor underneath her and felt the knife she kept there even in the relative safely of the tunnels, but the weapon would done her little good in this place of stone and metal.

Kat tried to move away but found that her hand was chained to the pillar that she had woken up against. There were a few others chained like her around the room and they both looked like they were on the brink of death. Just as she sat up to get a better look, a door at the far end opened up and a terminator stomped into view.

Kat pulled into herself as the machine stopped in front of her. It must have been an early 400 model judging by the rubber skin that have melted away in places. They had their weaknesses, but Skynet thought that still had their uses, in the camps. Life was not looking good, however Kat refused to let the fear show in her eyes even if the machine wouldn't care. Instead as it reached down for her arm, Kat fought against all logic.

Her foot hit home on the back of the knee, sending the machine on a short trip to the floor. It didn't matter; it had a job to do, reaching still for her left arm. Even as it pulled it away from her body and burned the barcode into her flesh, she ripped away pieces of the skin and beat into it hard enough to gain herself a few bruises.

The pain of the burn subsided and the machine turned to leave again she threw a kick at it legs hoping to bring the machine down again. It did little good, the machine turned back a kicked her right leg, sending pain shooting through her body once again. After it left the room, Kat inventoried the damages. Her leg was broken and the pain refused to retreat even after a day of agony.

The barcode burn was still tender to the touch, and would likely remain so for several days. She had gain a few more cuts and bruises from fighting with the machine every time it came within reach, hoping that she would be killed outright instead being discovered as someone who would have information on Connor. It was the last thing that she could do for the man that saved them all. Sacrifice herself so that the secrets she knew would remain safe.

She leaned against the pillar to which she was chained, thinking of how sour the hand fate dealt her had turned out. With her leg broken escape was impossible, and this wasn't the normal work camp. Connor had promised to keep her safe but to save her now would cripple Tech Com and the attempt would likely not even reach her alive.

They had tried to save others before and Skynet decided to kill everyone in the camp as a warning not to try again.

She only had three days until they started whatever they had planned for her. Three days for processing. Two had past and the other two humans in the room had died and been dragged out. Kat only had one more day to convince the machines that she wasn't worth the trouble to keep.

So there she sat staring into space her thigh throbbing in time with her heart, looking the entire world like she had given up. Running the numbers, weaknesses of the model that she was up against in this room of horrors. Now the smell of death filled her nose blocking out all hope. The words that Connor had spoken so often when the war seemed to be headed nowhere rang in her mind. "Fight till you can't fight anymore."

The terminator entered her now personal hell again carrying a tray of food with it. She didn't look up as it neared. As it bent to place the food down, Kat kick it again in the back of the knees, forcing the joint to bend, and it lost its balance and fell forward. Kat already had her only weapon in hand and ready to met the terminator's face as it meet when the floor.

The knife when through the eye with no problem and the weight drove the blade deep within the skull. But not deep enough, the machine turned to look at her and she drew back her good leg and kicked the handle of the knife with everything in her. The machine relaxed and fell against the floor and the chip was broken, the monster was dead. "Did not know who he was messing with." Kat whispered to herself and waited for death to come hoping it was quick.

The pain and stress couldn't be fought any longer, sleep took her.

The screams and gunshots woke Kat from this pitiful sleep. The pleading shouts and steady gunfire got closer with each passing minute. She wondered briefly if she had brought this down on everyone, but didn't make any sense. It wouldn't do any good.

After a while, she heard a new noise, shouts of a different kind. Organized yells, commands to soldiers moving within the compound. Hope that Kat had let die days ago struggled to keep a foothold in her mind now. The steady gunfire of the terminators moving to kill everyone was also getting closer. She calmed herself until one of them reached her since her fate was no longer in her hands.

A new terminator entered the room with a handgun hanging loosely at his side. It slowly walked the distance toward and all else fading into the background. Time slowed, stretching seconds into minutes, all the time she had left. It stepped over the body of the one she killed, stood and leveled the gun with her face. Kat could see down the barrel, and closed her eyes waiting for the shot to release her from the pain.

She jumped as the plasma sizzled through the air and hit something near her. Her eyes opened to find the metal twisted from the burst in front of her. Kat looked back to the door and saw the most wonderful sight. Connor stood holding a plasma rifle, which he lowered and hurried to her side.

Kat tried to move as he kneeled beside her, shouting for the others to go on. His hands stilled her when he saw the pain flash across her eyes. His voice comforting as he lifted her from the ground, carrying her to safety. "I told your brother I would take care of you. Plus I need another geek to help me out."

00000

Her body slowly returned from memory, after a new voice shouted across the room, calling to John and Rico to where they were hiding. Her life for Rico's that was the bargain, one she couldn't live with. Even as the metal placed its hand around her throat she knew that either way she was dead. The bullet wound insured that she would not be able to escape quickly.

For the second time in her life, Kat readied herself for death. The machine whispered to her, telling Kat to call out to the others. It was her only chance, to speak. "John," as the terminator looked around for any sign of movement, she reached down to her boot slowly pulled it free. The terminator looked down at her again, this time she let him know that she wanted to be left behind. "John run."

Kat took action the moment the machine looked away again. She brought the knife that she was never without up and forced into the eye as she had done once before. She didn't have the strength to drive the blade far enough in. At least it would be damaged, less able to get to john. She hit the handle twice in a roll trying to force it farther, but the terminator reacted quickly and backhanded Kat into darkness.

0000

John took a breath to prepare himself and stood leaving the cover behind to face the metal monster that had been dogging his step. He wasn't sure how it would end, but the running stopped now. He raised the gun, remembering he only had two shots left aimed carefully for the left eye. Two pulls and the bullets hit home impacting the butt end of a knife that was sticking out of its left.

It was over. The terminator fell backward and the red glow dimmed and died from its eyes. John dropped the gun to the ground and ran across the floor to where Kat laid unconscious and bleeding. He pressed his hand over the wound to stop the blood flow and fumbled in his pockets for his cell.

A Bronco pulled up outside and out poured Derek and Sarah running gun ready toward the sound of shot fired. They entered the building but John didn't notice until Derek was kneeling on the floor on the other side of Kat. John didn't care as Derek pulled his belt free of the loops and fastened it around her leg. He just turned his attention to waking her up. "Kat, can you hear me?" his fingers smeared blood along her jaw as he checked her breathing and pulse. "Derek we only had about 15 more minutes before…." John could force out the last words.

Sarah got on the phone to get Charlie, but he was to far away. Then Rico said something John didn't quite hear about his safe house wasn't that far away and that they had a medic there.

"John, we have to move her?" Derek moved to pick Kat off the floor, but John beat him to it, lifting her in his arms and carried her to the Bronco. Blood was seeping through his clothes and wetting his skin.

"I won't let her die." John said, trying to believe it himself.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Slipping

John sat in the back set with Kat draped over his lap. The blood lose had slowed but she hadn't regained consciousness, her head laid against his arm almost as if she was sleeping, but the bruise forming along her chin told the story. Rico was beside him, pointing out the turns that would bring them to help. When the Bronco pulled into the drive way of the small out of the way house, Kat seemed to be coming out of it.

"John," her voice seemed distant, her eyes had opened yet. "You should have left me behind."

"Not you." John couldn't help the words from slipping past his lips. He had to save someone from the constant stream of terminators that Skynet kept sending back to kill people. He forced Riley away to keep her safe after a few too many close calls.

"How many did you lose to get me back?"

"Huh?" What on earth was she talking about?

"Connor you shouldn't have come for me. I was ready to die."

"She's not up yet. Use to talk all the time in her sleep." Rico stated as he got out of the truck and went to ran into the house leaving the door standing open.

John turned his attention back to the girl in his arms. She wasn't a fragile like Riley, who had been shoved into this life unarmed, Kat was a fighter. Hell, she stabbed a terminator for lack of better options. No one would have compared her to a supermodel, but she did look like the kind who could survive when most of humanity died out, pretty but tough. Looking down at her relaxed blood smeared face; John tried to understand what he was feeling. He sure didn't want to see her like this again; it was tearing at his insides.

Derek jerked open the door, and had his arms around Kat's upper body before John could protest. Some one was shouting inside, things that couldn't quite be made out. John lifted the rest of her body out of the Bronco and helped carry her inside. However since the he had a hold of her legs, more blood was soaking into his clothing.

The backdoor they came in through led directing into the kitchen and dining area. Someone had already cleared the dining table off and the chairs were pulled to the side, allowing the guys to lay Kat down on the intended surface with ease. One member in the cell came forward donning a pair of latex gloves; the medic that Rico told them was here. This man wasn't a stranger.

"Mike, what the hell are you doing here?" Derek ripped his arms out of his jacket and shoved his sleeves up higher out of the way.

"Well, its looks like I'm batching up Kat here." Mike pulled her skirt up higher to get a better look at the wound, trying to move her as little as possible. John quit listening as Mike's probed the wound and Kat whimpered slowly coming back around. Derek's hand were there instantly holding her in place and his tone was even as he told her she was safe and she needed to be still.

"The metal?" Kat voice didn't seem like it could gain anymore volume, but her body relaxed seeing that ordeal of the afternoon was over.

"John got it. Cameron's back cleaning up the site right now." Derek released his grip on her side and held her hand. Mike wiped the blood away and reached into a kit that had been placed on the chair.

Mike came back to the table with a knife in his hand. He didn't pay any attention to Derek or John as he leaned over into Kat's field of vision. "Kat, the bullet's still in there and I've gotta get it out before you can be sewn up. But we don't have any…"

"I know the drill. See it done a hundred times, just grit my teeth and bare it." Kat smiled weakly as Mike nodded and Rico came to his side gauze and needle ready. Everyone but John seemed to know what was going on, but he didn't get it.

"What's happening?" John asked Derek as Kat closed her eye and started taking deep controlled breathes.

Derek didn't even look up. "He can't get to the bullet, so he's gonna have to dig it out and there's no pain killers."

Sarah, who had been standing back taking in the scene, came forward to pull John into the other room so that he wouldn't have to see. She knew that they didn't have enough time to wait for Charlie, Kat had lost too much blood for waiting to be possible. Even when Derek had been fighting for his life in their kitchen, Charlie had the meds needed. Derek had been knocked out cold. Kat's face screwed up in pain and a groan forced through her tightly pressed lips. Derek hadn't been a pretty defenseless girl.

"John," he knew that his mother didn't want him to see this, but he ignored her. He ran and left her in the warehouse, he wasn't running from this.

"A little help here." Mike was working as fast as he could, but Kat couldn't keep her leg still. Another man who John didn't know brushed past him and grabbed her lower leg holding it down. Derek moved to pin her upper body down with his weight. John moved in and kneel down on the floor so that they were face to face. Kat didn't see him there that first, her breathing was coming in quick pants, and her eyes screwed shut as if it would block out the pain. He reached and pushed the hair that had fallen into her face back behind her ear.

"Kat look at me." She didn't respond right away. John tried again keeping his voice even and hopefully calming. "Kat open your eyes." She did. "Now breathe slowly. Just control your breathing." John didn't realize that he was reaching for her hand until he was holding it firmly in his. "Tell me something. Just talk about anything else. Get your mind off this."

"We've done this before." Kat's pained giggle brought a ghost of the smile to John's face.

"Yeah, what did I do that time?"

"Hang in there, baby." Mike must have been cutting deeper because part of the scream escaped before she could bite it off. "Through the rough spots, you always said hang in there baby."

"That's the second time you've said that today. What does it mean?" John didn't notice that he was running his hand over her hair as he spoke. Derek did and he could see the look in John's eyes. He just wasn't sure what side he would take.

"You use to say it all the time. It was kinda like the unofficial motto of the Resistance. That we just to hang on long enough win." John heard a piece of metal hit against the wooden table. The worst was over. Now they just had to sew her back up.

"I like it. I remember that."

"You better. I don't what to learn another motto." Her laugh didn't really reach her eyes, but John chuckled along with her anyway. Her eyes were drifting closed as she spoke. "I don't feel so good."

It was Mike's turn to voice concern. "What's wrong?" He was almost through with his snitches.

"Sick and light headed. World's spinning. " John could hear Mike swear under his breathe, and his worry intensified. Too much time had passed; Kat's was losing too much blood just like the Terminator said after he shot her.

"Mom, Charlie?" John called over his shoulder, hoping that he was now his way.

"Five more minutes John," Sarah didn't like feeling helpless, but there was nothing for her do as the rest of the cell seemed to have a job to do.

Five minutes. Mike just had to keep her alive for five more minutes, but Kat slipped into unconsciousness. Derek pushed John out of the way and cupped her face with his hands and pleaded with her to wake up. "Come on Kat, you're tougher than this."

"We need a donor." Mike stated clearly, if he was panicking it wasn't showing. "She won't last long like this, an hour tops, and that's only because we stopped the bleeding."

"Are you even set up for that?"

"No but Charlie will have what we need." Mike pulled the gloves from his hands and threw them in the trash. "He trained all the medics as the unofficial head of the medical core."

John has no idea how to take that. Charlie as part of the resistance. Guess since they had brought him into the war, he was in for the long haul. "Well, who gonna break the news to him?"

No one answered as Kat was rolled from her side and onto her back now that her leg was bandaged. There was very little color in her cheeks. All eyes seemed to watching her for any sign that she was going to pass. Seconds ticked slowly by as everyone waited for Charlie to make his appearance. Then time passed in a flash, John watched as Charlie walked in the door carrying his bag, Sarah rolled up her sleeve and now as his mother's blood flowed into Kat's veins saving her life.

John looked down and saw the blood that was covering his clothing, her blood. The proof that he had put her in harm's way. He jerked off his shirt and threw it into the sink. Watching as some of the blood washed away with the water, unpleasant thoughts started to crop up again. It was tearing at his guts, everything he was supposed be and seemed to be failing at. He pulled the material out of the water and squeezed the reddish fluid out.

Her blood swirled into strange patterns as it headed to the drain. Her life going down the drain, because of him. He flung the wet mess back into the sink. "Shit," once the emotional damn broke, all eyes turned to him, but he didn't care. "What the hell am I suppose to do?"

Derek waved everyone out of the room before John could say anything else, but they were still in hearing distance when he turned to Derek and started shouting again. "Is this how it's supposed to work? Save two out of every three. Make the sacrifices to save the world? Is this how I save the world?"

"John calm down." Derek glanced at Sarah, but she wouldn't be a help with this. "Look, everything turned out fine. Kat's going to be okay."

"I'm not who everyone thinks I am. I ran when I should have protected her." John didn't hear his voice crack as he spoke. He was lost.

"You got her back." John wasn't listening to Derek anymore.

"I can't protect one girl from the machines." John turned and stared down at the bloody, wet mess of a shirt. "Always running, always protected, I can barely keep myself alive."

John walked shirtless out the door that they had carried Kat through into the dark. He could barely look at it anymore let alone wear it. Derek moved to follow but Mike's restraining hand keep him in place. Instead, Mike headed out the door with a wad of cloth in his hand.

"Derek, I'll bring him back. We had this conversation before."

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A/n: Here's a fact for y'all. Reviews help keep me inspired. So click that little button and tell me what you think, otherwise I may start another fic because I'm starting to get a little writer's block. Help me out. I want to finished.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Saving one

John moved across the yard to a building in back, just wanting to escape from everyone. He shouldn't have yelled at Derek like that, but all that had happened today weighed on his shoulders like iron. How could he have been so stupid? 'Kat, oh my God, Kat." The image of her lying on that table wouldn't leave him in peace.

A voice from the doorway pulled John back from the guilt that he was drowning in. He turned to look at the man who just offered him a clean shirt. John took the cloth, mumbled his thanks, and pulled the material over his head. Instead, of leaving, the fighter sat a few feet away from John and pulled a pack of smokes out of his pocket and offered to share.

He declined with a shake if his head; half hoping he would go away.

"Yeah, you're right these things will probity kill me one day." Mike pulled a lighter out and expertly lit it, taking a deep drag. "If the machines don't get me first." Another slow drag. "Name's Mike. I batched up Kat, if you didn't notice."

"Yeah, I caught that." Giving up ignoring Mike, John decided he might as well thank him. "Thanks for Kat, I don't know what would happen if…"

"No problem, I've been friends with the Reese's since me and Kyle did our time in Century together with Connor." Mike tore his attention away from John, and stared at the dirt floor, appearing to gather his thoughts.

"And what was he like? Connor?" John passed up the chance to know more his father, to gain whatever from the man that he just met.

"Good leader, always in front. He never asked the men to anything that he wouldn't do." Mike's smoke was half-way finished as he started to talk about the man that would save the world. The person that John didn't feel anything like at the moment. "He pulled us back from the brink. We weren't even fighting back until John showed us how. Of course, I was one of the first to join in Century, I met her. I guess I understood him better than most."

"Who?" John had never heard this part of the story.

"Katy was with him from the beginning, I think they loved each other. I haven't seen him with anyone since. She looked a few years younger than him. Amazing girl, she figured how the machines worked and how to hurt them, one of the bravest people I've ever knew. Even when she was dieing, she didn't want anyone to see the pain she was in. Metal never scared her." He flicked the butt down into the dirt and ground it out with his shoe. "After she died, John pulled me to the side. I guess he just wanted someone to talk to. I never forget that, I swear a piece of him died with her."

"The machines?" John couldn't believe this guy was sitting here telling him the love of life that he hadn't even met yet.

"No, that's part of what got him. It could have been prevented, but Skynet didn't see the sense in saving a life just to kill them later."

"What'd she have?" great, another one he didn't save.

"Not sure, I was barely even a teenager when the bombs fell." He drew another smoke out of his pack, repeating the ritual. "You wanna hear the advice I got that day?"

"Why not?"

"Saving the world is too much; there are too many people and too many things that go wrong. Instead, you gotta focus in smaller. Let's say your family or a friend. Keep those people alive and the war will fight itself."

"Sounds simple," John wasn't sure if it could be that simple. Mike made it sound so easy.

"I said the same thing when you told me that, Connor, but you said simple works best." Mike stated turning to John with a smile on his face.

"How'd you know?" John was shocked to say the least.

"Well you're outburst in the kitchen for starters." Mike looked him in the eye and chuckled, causing John to smile as well. "And I've seen that look on your face with you carried Kat in a few times before."

"What look?"

"Intense, desperate." Mike threw down another cigarette butt down on the ground. "The same look you had when you carried her in from Lakeview looking like she had been through hell and back a couple times."

John didn't want to imagine Kat looking any worse than she unconscious on the table. "What happened to her in there?"

"It could have been worse, we were lucky to get the ones we did out." Mike was reached for his pack again, offered it out to John again. "I don't know what they had planned for her, but she put up one hell of a fight. Beat herself black and blue trying to fight them off. That girl is fearless when she has to be."

"I'll say." John was thinking back to what he seen from her today. It was like she became someone else when the machine opened fire on them, but somehow stayed the same. Determined, focus. "It's almost like she has a death wish."

"Not a death wish. She's got that one person, one to save."

"So she's had someone back home."

"Not really, there were a few guys that got lucky, but no one ran the distance."

"And Rico, they knew each other?"

"Not as well as Rico wanted to, but most days she just wanted to beat his brains in." Mike smiled. "Trust me; you got nothing to worry about. The girl's free, if you're brave enough to make the play."

"No, it's not…" John couldn't even get the whole denial out before Mike started laughing.

"Fine, keep telling yourself that kid." Mike threw down his final smoke. "Well, that's the last of this pack. Before I go inside, let me tell you something. Your name's John Connor, but that's not who you are. Don't live your life based on what others told you to be, that's not what we need. Don't pressure yourself to fit into that mold; it'll happen all on its own. You still got time." Mike turned to walk out the door, but John had one question for him.

"When was the other time?" Mike turned back to John, the confusion plain on his face. "The other time you saw that look?"

"Oh, that. When she was dieing in Century and there's as nothing you could do to stop it."

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A/n: I know short chapter, but where could I go from there. The next posting will be longer. Oh, and thank everyone who reviewed, it really helps keep me on track. I have another fic warming on the back burner, but I want to get this done before 'twilight' takes over me head completely.


	9. Chapter 8

This took so long to get out, and my cat broke my laptop. Go figure.

Chapter 8: Face the guilt

Derek slowly walked over Sarah after John and Mike left the building, and then held her shoulder trying to comfort her. The two most important people in their lives were hurting and there was nothing they could do. The color was coming back into her cheeks and Charlie unhooked the needles and tubes and passed out the band-aids.

"Well, there nothing else I can do here." Charlie held a bottle of pain killers to Derek. "One every four hours for pain."

"Dixon, I'm…" Derek grasped at the words he wanted to say but settled with, "Thank you, Mike's good but you saved her life."

"I'll be back in morning to check on her." Charlie slung the strap of his bag over his shoulder. He and Derek exchanged a nod. Derek knew there were no hard feelings between the two, though it got rocky after Charlie's wife died. Every so often the fight would bring Charlie back into their screwed up little lives. Whether it was to sew Derek back together again or to follow a lead Charlie stumbled across. "Keep an eye on Johnny, he…"

"I know." That was all Sarah had to say. She saw the pain in his eyes just as clearly as everyone else could. It was the first time she heard him worry about losing himself into the legend of what he would become, instead of running from it. Yes, there was something about the girl, but Sarah didn't know if she liked it.

"You look beat." Derek released his hold on her and they moved from the table toward the kitchen counter. Sarah nodded thinking back to the number of times her heart stopped today. First, when John called her saying that a machine was chasing them. Second, when the gunfire started in the background of the same phone call, after that it whole afternoon seemed like one massive heart attack. "I should get you to a bed before you collapse."

"Not until we know they're both okay?" Sarah's eyes moved back to the unconscious girl laid out on the table, looking completely helpless. Nothing she could do right now would help either of them. They both needed time to recover for different reasons, physical and emotional.

"The boys and I gotta know," Rico came into the semi-empty kitchen speaking to Derek, but he eyes kept glancing over to Sarah, "He really Connor? Are they the Connors?"

"Why would you think that man?" Derek stared down the younger man, clearly not happy with him.

"Don't try to feed me some bull. After the shit I saw today and that that little rant of his, I think I know what's up."

"Rico, as usual, you're talking out of your ass." Derek folded his arms across his chest.

"Don't feed me some line of crap. I know the score. He's Connor now act like a decent human being for once in your life and tell us the truth." Rico was trying to stay calm. "I've have a really long day, and you're starting to piss me off."

"What does it matter?" Derek spoke in even clear tones that betrayed to anyone who knew him exactly how pissed off he was. "The name's Baum and you better not forget that. Call him anything else and I'll personally put your ass down for not keeping your mouth shut."

Before Rico could breathe another word, another man about Derek's age came into the kitchen calling his name. The tone of his Texas draw spoke volumes about how fed up the other men in the house felt about Rico's attitude. "Ben needs you go out with him tonight, in case they spilt up again." He waited until Rico walked out the room before he held his hand out for Derek to shake. "You must be Derek, name's Tex. I know real creative nickname, but what y'all expect from a pack of tunnel rats."

"Have we met before?" Derek picked his brain trying to find the connection.

"No, but Kat ran with my unit for a bit. Hell of a filly, that girl, talked about her big brother a lot." Tex chuckled to himself. "Mostly I think in was to keep the skirt chasers at a respectable distance. So I took it on myself to keep the little lady out of trouble." He tipped a nonexistent hat in Sarah's direction. "Ma'am"

"Rico was a little fuzzy about you guys where doing here."

"That kid's is basically numb from the neck up. We're here to build up a framework for Tech Com to grow into. You know round up stock piles for things that we'll need." Tex shoved his hand into the back pockets of his jeans. "You wanting to take Kat home with y'all tonight, cause I'm sure the doc's gonna keep an eye on her?"

Derek glanced at the table where Kat's hadn't moved a muscle, then to Sarah asking the question with his eyes. He was torn. Sarah had given a lot of blood and would be more comfortable at home, but what if Kat's stiches pulled out or any one of million things that could go wrong. Plus she's didn't have a bed there and sleeping on the sofa didn't look comfortable with her injuries.

When Derek didn't answer right away, Tex powered on. "We could move her to my room. Only got a mattress on the floor, but it's next to bathroom, not far down the hall and it's clean. I'll sleep on the couch if that the case and make sure none of the boys mess with her if you're worried."

Mike's walked in the back door with a cigarette smoke still clinging to him. He threw a crumpled empty pack into the trash as he walked by to check on Kat. He picked up her wrist and counted her pulse as his watch ticked off the seconds. "She's doing better. Heartbeat's strong, but I wouldn't suggest moving her across town."

Tex traded an 'I told you look' with Derek. "She'll be fine here overnight, but we don't have enough space to put everybody up."

"Okay, we'll head back up in the morning." Sarah answered for Derek. She knew better than to ask about John, but had a feeling he would want to stay where ever Kat was tonight. "John can stay too?"

Mike answered. "Sure thing."

After a few more minutes of working out the finer details of the sleeping arrangements and moving Kat off the table and into Tex's room, without waking her, Derek and Sarah left the safe house and headed home to get some shut eye. But as Derek drove the Bronco home his mind was on other matters.

As an adopted older brother, any guy that showed any feeling toward Kat became an automatic enemy of the state as far as he was concerned, but John, his nephew, was displaying more than friendly emotions. He had no idea where to lay his loyalties. Sure, John was a good kid and shaping into a decent guy, but Kat for all her rough and tortured upbringing had no real experience with matters of the heart.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Sarah quietly spoke as she stared out into the night. Derek shot her a questioning look across the cab. "I saw it too."

That was all that needed to said. They drove the rest of the way home silence worrying about barely legal adults they left behind.

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When John came back into the house he noticed two things, Kat just laying on the table anymore and mike and another man were the only ones in the house with her. Even then it was only a passing worry, for what he had gathered from Mike outside he had her back.

Still, it was a good thing that Rico was gone. John didn't like him at all, just the way he acted made punching him seem like a good idea. Must be some dormant macho thing about Rico flirting with HIS girl. Who wasn't even his anyway.

Fated lovers and all that crap, it was enough to make him want to bang his head against the wall. He didn't know what to think about the bomb that Mike had been kind enough to drop on him an hour ago. He didn't move from where he was sat since the medic left him to his thought in the shed out back.

A few weeks ago John was okay with his crappy existence. He figured like his mother, he would just end up alone since when someone got close they got hurt. He couldn't keep doing that to innocent people. Life any where near the Connor household meant war. And it pulled everyone into the crossfire.

Like Kat. 'Your not even old enough to drink, but here's the love of your life, go and enjoy her before she's dies.' John's thoughts were reeling, trying to make it make sense. It still wasn't working. He finally wandered back in the safe house since staring at the metal panels and made up the shed wasn't helping.

There he stood in the kitchen staring at the table at Kat suffered on, when one of the guys John glimpsed earlier came strolling straight for the icebox. He when pulled two beers out, and held one out to John. Again he shook he head.

"Now, where I come from if you're old enough to fight metal you're old enough knock back a few beers." The guy twisted the tops off both bottles and held one back out to John again. "Well, if you don't drink it you're a wasting good beer and that's down right insulting."

He managed a smile at that one, and took the offered bottle. The guy left kitchen as John tilted the bottle up. Following whoever back through the door he came from, John found himself in a living room that was a shining example of a man cave. Big screen TV, a couple battered chairs and couches for sitting, but every other flat surface was covered in pizza and take-out boxes.

"Hey John," Mike was sitting in a chair, an unlit smoke behind his ear, with his feet on what might was been a table as he pointed to man stretched lengthwise on the sofa. "You meet Tex? He's a real life southern belle."

"Watch your mouth Yank, or I'll close it for you." Tex drawled never taking his eyes from the game on screen. "They left maybe a half hour ago if you're wandering where your folks got off to. Be back in the morn, until then you have to hang with two butts from the future."

John settled down and watched the game for a while, enjoying the two friends, he guessed from the way they teased back and forth, constantly dig at each other. Every so often Mike would get up and check on the patient as he stated the first time he left the room, or Tex would go back into the kitchen to retrieve more bottles. John stopped after two when he started to relax.

After a late dinner of leftover pizza, the TV was turned off, John given a blanket and Mike left to check on Kat one more time before heading to his room. A few minutes later Mike called for someone to bring a pill bottle from the kitchen counter. He took the excuse to check on Kat, retrieved the painkillers and headed to the sick room.

Kat was still laying on her back, but the tank top that she had been wearing was replaced with a baggy T-shirt and her color was looking loads better since the last time he saw her. As an added bonus, Kat's eyes were open, sleepy but open.

Mike took the pill bottle, and handed one to Kat who dry swallowed it without a second thought. After a few questions and a quick poking and prodding, Mike left saying that Kat would indeed live through the night. That left the two alone with a lot unsaid in the room. Kat went first.

"That's the second time you done this."

"Done what?"

"Rescued me at the last minute when I was ready to nobly sacrifice myself." She stared up at the ceiling as she spoke. "Don't get me wrong, being alive is great. But maybe next time you can get there before I can't walk away under my own power."

He couldn't help but chuckle. "I say don't get into life threatening situations, but I'll see what I can do."

"That's all I ask." The silence crept back in again. He turned to walk out and try to get some sleep on the couch, but Kat called him back. "Can you do me a favor?"

John took a few steps toward the mattress she was sleeping on. "Sure."

She didn't answer at first, seeming to be searching for the right words. "Could you stay with me tonight? It's too quite. After everything today, I don't think I could take that too."

The reason he told himself as he sat down on the mattress with his back against the wall was guilt. He felt horribly about the warehouse and this would in some small measure make up of that. "Do you want me to stay all night or just until you fall asleep?" he didn't know which he was hoping for.

"Don't care. It just that back, I guess we could call it home, it never got this quiet. People moving around, whispering to each other. The term dead still got literal quick." Kat wiggled under the covers trying not to move her leg. "It's been hard sleeping back at the house, but now I just want to hear another person breathing."

He was trying to make up for almost getting her killed, and Kat just want him to sit and breathe. Well, if that's what she wanted. John pulled off his boots and settled back down on the mattress wondering if he should talk or just sit in silence. More time to think about Mike's words.

"You're awfully quite." Kat's turned her face toward his, trying to read his thoughts in his eyes, not getting anywhere. It wasn't any different than before, Kat knew something was bothering John but she could never could figure out exactly what. "This wasn't your fault you know."

"I shouldn't have left you." Kat knew that tone in his voice; something was bugging him big time.

"You thought I was right behind you, and I should have been. It's my fault I got grabbed, or Rico's for leading the metal to us in the first place." Kat willed her words to reach out him in that space she hated for him to be lost in. The head space that caused him so much pain. She had seen him fall into so many times. "Anyone's but yours, because you saved me."

"You were halfway to saving yourself." Kat didn't knew that wasn't true, the metal would have held her there until she bled out or snapped her as soon as the boys left the building, either way left on her own her number had come up.

"John," Kat held the pause until his met hers in the shadows of the room, "you saved my life, no ifs, ands, or buts. Please try to see that."

"But…"

"No buts, live with it." Kat wouldn't let him finished that sentence again. There would be enough death to lie at his feet in time, but this was a bright and shiny moment. "Just lie down and get some sleep. We'll talk about how guilty you feel in the morning."


	10. Chapter 9

Help, I have serious writer's block, ideas or thoughts if you have them would greatly helpful. What do you want, let me know please.

Chapter 9: My girl?

John woke up wondering what on Earth was making him so hot. As the real world slowly pulled him away from his dreams, the rough pull of his jeans on his legs was confusing since he rarely fell asleep fully clothed. Then something moved beside him.

He opened his eye and found that sometime during the night after his mind finally slowed down enough for sleep he had curled up next to Kat in the bed she begged him not to leave. And now she had turned over and was buried her head in-between his head and shoulder. He was sure he had passed out on opposite side of the bed, and now they laying on their sides facing each other. Kat cuddled up close to his body like she was born to fill his arms.

The bruise on the side of her face had darkened overnight standing out against her skin, but still she slept peacefully. He ran his free hand over the mark the machine had left on her thinking about how easily she put the whole thing behind her. He wished he could do the same.

It was perfect the way she laid there trusting him completely, seeking her comfort in him. He could get use to this. The rightness of it confirming everything that Mike had told John the night before. But if this was his future, then he would lose her before the war started in just a few short years. She was on borrowed time.

The door slowly crept open pulling John away from his thoughts about Kat and into a situation that where someone was going to see just how cozy they became. Tex poked his head inside, but said nothing besides the fact that everyone was up and Mike would be in to check on the patient soon. Still, it broke the spell that had fallen and John untangled himself from Kat.

"John," well, at least she wasn't dreaming it was someone else holding her. As she reached toward his side of the bed, he shushed and whisper a command to go back to sleep. "Always, ordering people around."

"Only when they need their rest." John smiled to himself and carefully brushed her hair back from her face. Defenseless, that is exactly what she looked like. Something that needed to be protected. Man, he needed to get away from her long enough to clear his head.

Kat watched him shove his feet into his boots and walk out the door. It was nice waking in his arms. Warm and safe, it ended too soon when he pulled away. It was wrong to ask him to stay last night. She needed someone, but it must have been too much for John. He ran as fast as he could out the door. Sure he saved her, but that's what John did he saved people.

But he touched her face before he left. Not a typical move when you want to cut a run. Tenderness was not something that got passed around a lot in the future. Too many other things to worry about. Most people didn't even have a bed to sleep on. Everyone who survived had a hard edge.

Kat wished she knew what torturing him as she stared at the ceiling. Their friendship was in danger because of the metal and the distance that was opening between. That was the one thing she never felt about Connor. He was always open with her.

They were two different men, John and Connor. Both had an inner strength that they carried like a second skin. She liked John better since she came back. He wasn't burdened and scarred from being the General.

Why couldn't he let her save him? Was it a macho guy thing? Who cares? Why did she care? For weeks she had been spending lot time with him, but what he was to her personally. A friend. The general. A lonely young man.

Mike interrupted her thought coming in a poking and prodding until declaring her firming sitting in the land of the living. He was acting guilty about something. As he knelt on the floor by the mattress replacing the gauze, Kat knew he was gearing up for something. The same look would make an appearance when he waited by the hatch to go on patrol.

"So, how did this brush feel?" Ah, Mike was golden, a regular lucky charm. The machines hadn't touched him since Century work camp. Come to think of it there's where Connor first picked up the medic back in the day. Everyone that did time with Connor bragged about it, had their back when stories. Mike didn't talk about it, saying he saw something that really spooked him.

"Same as last time." He always wanted to know about near death experiences. "Somehow staring down a gun barrel is strangely calming."

"Look," the silence was expectant as Mike starting walking to the door. "I don't say much, but there's something I need to get off my chest."

****

As John wandered into the kitchen thoughts racing, he noticed his backpack was sitting on the table. Funny, who had brought it over? Then, when was the last time Cameron had left him alone for the night.

He stopped short suddenly remembering what Cameron had said the first morning that Kat jumped back. Two years early and two years older. Putting her at about the age when she would have died in the work camp. Then, later that day Kat said something about making himself happy.

Would he really risk changing the future just to save one girl? Even if he loved her. That went against everything he knew. War like chess was about sacrifices, trading pieces on the board. Sure, she knew her way around a keyboard and stabbing a terminator proved she had enough guts for a whole squad.

Yeah, and her soft skin and great butt were tactical advantages needed to combat Skynet. Right. But she was here, and she really did have a great little body; small, compact and curvy with muscle. Still, there was no way that she felt the same.

Snickering pulled John out of his daze as a few pieces of the puzzle fell into place. When he faced the source of the noise, Rico was leaning on the wall opposite the fridge with a smug grin on his face. In less than twenty-four hours, that punk wore down to John's last nerve and it looked like he was ready to start jumping on it.

"Have fun last night? Cuz I couldn't help but notice while there was a blanket and everything laid out on the couch that you were nowhere to be found." Rico tilted the soda he was drinking to his mouth and paused of effect before he spoke again. "Tell me why send that pretty piece of tail back when you were screwing her in the future? Are you having so much trouble getting laid that jumping your favorite wh….?

There where a couple things about the next few seconds John would, thinking back, like to know about. Like what triggered the insanely violent side of himself that he never knew was there before. Now, a full half minute later it was narrowed down to a reference to tail or the fact Rico almost called Kat a lady of the night. Either way John had Rico pinned face first against the fridge with enough anger flowing through his veins to beat the other teen into hamburger.

Another tidbit that might be useful would be how did he react so fast. Rico didn't even get the full insult out before John hurled the other into the metal door. Somehow slamming the prick into a nice and solid felt great, like breaking something fragile when pissed. Now, John didn't think before the words came out of his mouth.

"If you ever talk about her like that again I will end you." This was no mild threat, John knew that as soon as the words left his lips. "Don't forget I know that you would have left her to die. So you really don't have any room to talk." And with one last shove John pushed off Rico and was walking out the back door when Cameron appeared in it.

Of course, she would be stalking somewhere nearby. Protecting him, and that was getting old. There had to be some way to keep the machine from following him around. She tilted her head in her thoughtful way.

"He's a threat."

"Really, Cameron, how so?" John knew what being a threat added up to in her programming.

"He led the triple 8 to you and would have exposed this cell."

"So, he's stupid and for that we should take him out of the picture." Sure, John wished the guy all sorts of ill will, but he didn't want to put a bullet to him. "No, Cam, he doesn't die until I say so."

With that he brushed past his self proclaimed protector and walked into the sunshine. Why did he go all throw down on Rico? John knew exactly what he was acting like. A over protective boyfriend, and he hadn't even worked up the nerve to ask her to a movie.

Still, part of him wanted to point to Kat and tell the whole world 'that's my girl'.

8888

a/n: I know its been forever since I posted, but my muse left me. Fled really, and I was finally able to track the sucker down. More will come and it won't take nearly as long I promise.


	11. Chapter 10

A/n: Here's the next exciting chapter. Yes, I know, soon. But my muse came back and I won't let it go to waste. And for the record the chapter title comes from a video on You tube called 'the end of the world'. You should check it out.

Chapter 10: WTF Mate

'John Connor loves me. Or will love me. Or did love me. Crap, time travel sucks.' Kat sat staring at the pile of clothes that Cameron deposited sometime after Mike left, wondering if she should even make the effort to get out of bed. A shower may clear her head a little, and god knew she loved the feeling of being clean. Never remembering a time when there was enough water to bath daily made the feeling of water running over her skin the best thing in her world.

If she was lying to herself. If she stopped the John loves me chant long enough, Kat would have to force herself to face the truth that the best part of her life was waking up this morning HIS arms wrapped around her. That she never felt so safe and so protected. But the waters were warm in the Nile this time of year.

So a warm shower it was, and the hope that somehow it would fix everything. When did her life get so messed up? The answer when Connor sent her back that when. Before everything fit so nicely into place.

Derek and Kyle were her brothers, not uncle and father to the hope of mankind.

Connor was like a friendly uncle, never doing anything that would lead Kat to think that he carried a torch for years. There's was no way that that man felt any thing more than indebted to the Reese family and that's why he moved heaven and earth to save her. To think that an old man like Connor loved her like that was creepy.

But John feeling the same way, that made her heart feel funny, like it was skipping beats.

Yes, warm water was a must, the hotter the better. Maybe all the steam would clear her head. Best not to think about John. About the way her eyes could help but watch his hands flying over the keyboard. Or the way his eyes lit up and wrinkled at the corners whenever he smiled.

What did she know about love? Did she know anyone that had fallen? No. Had she ever fallen herself? No. Sure girls her age were encouraged to get laid and pop out those babies and she was not a virgin, but love. Nothing that strong had ever crossed her path. To make matters worse, there was no one to talk about this.

Not even the pain from the gunshot could cut through the haze from Mike's enlightenment. The problem was complex, but boiled down to one question. How did John Connor loving her make Kat feel?

Simple to the point, but a shower, a change of clothes and a bowl of cereal later Kat still didn't have an answer. 'Time travel sucks.'

The time displacement machine seriously messed with Kat's life. Okay, forget Connor. Focus on John. What did he mean to her? Again, simple question with no answer in sight. He was the future, but did Kat want him to be her future. To share in his destiny. The whole picture that went with him was too much. Kat knew she was freaking out. Still she could not calm down, and the more she thought about it the bigger the problem seemed to get.

This whole world was foreign to her.

New clothes brought and fitted to her body, nothing like the second hand rags that had been thread bare ad black from wear that Kat had worn most of her life. Some many things were different from this time. Everything was newer, cleaner. Even John hadn't seen the things that scarred him. The young man who shared her bed last night like the battle hardened general from the future.

John and Connor were two different people.

Even Kat was different, cleaner like everything else. She remembered staring at her reflection that first morning. Her hair lighter and fuller with filth and caked in dirt were washed away. Her skin shone freed from the grime that collected from sweat, dirty air and throwing herself face first into the mud that had once been city streets to avoid being seen by a HK or worse.

She never noticed until the brown water started circling the drain how much there was or how good it felt to be really clean. No one bothered with bathing, doing no more than rubbing a wet cloth over their face. Her hair always pulled back from her face, tried back in a pony tail. She also had never worn a skirt. Pants were simply more practical.

She also felt nothing more than friendship for John Connor.

'Time travel sucks.' Her new boots were set neatly by the door where someone had set them the night before while Kat was passed out. The black leather was battered and discolored from the car crash and being dragged across the concert by that triple 8. They made her feel sexy when she wore them. Hugging her calves all the up to her knees, sturdy heel only a few inches high, and just her size. Kat truly never wore anything like them.

She wasn't the little tech geek holed up in a room 90 percent of the time with a computer wearing bagging clothes and missing her brothers. Ill fitting BDU's didn't compare to the outfits Kat could put together now. Before she really didn't want to be seen as female. She just wanted to stay at the front and fight. Being attractive meant the guys noticed being noticed meant wooing and wooing could lead to sex. All sex was unprotected. Lastly sex could lead to pregnant and that meant Haven.

So Kat kept most at arm length because she didn't want to sit back all safe when there was so much she could do right there holed up in a room with a computer.

Now she liked that heads turned when she walked past. She liked flirting and feeling sexy. She liked that the only thing her old foot wear and new shoes had in common was being black.

"I come bearing gifts." A familiar green army jacket sleeve was held through the almost closed door holding a clear plastic container of fruit. Fresh fruit have quickly become her second favorite thing about this time, right under unlimited hot warm. "Are you decent?"

"Never, but you can come in." Kat pulled her bare feet in and leaned back against the wall. It still didn't cut through the haze but he defiantly made her feel more grounded. He handed over a bowl and fork before settling down right next to Kat and carefully, almost as if she would break, placed an arm around her shoulders pulling her closer. A moment or two passed as the peace settled into her bones. Leaning her head against a muscled shoulder, she thought about how many times they had done this.

Curled up next to a wall to get out of the way and for warmth, he kissed the top of her head but said nothing. That was their way. Talking was always playful bickering, silence was comforting. Kat knew she didn't have to speak her problems; he would wait until she was ready. He wouldn't press.

"You know you're the best brother in the world." Kat tilted her head back and smiled up at Derek. He smirked back at her.

"I try." He reached out and plucked the lid of the fruit he brought for her and stole a piece of melon before she could slap his hand away. "Mike said you've been locked in here all day. Catatonic was the word he used."

"You and Mike gossip like old bitties." Derek knew something was up whenever she didn't say more. Normally, she would have continued wholeheartedly ribbing him. It was their way. John was sitting at the table cleaning a rifle when he and Sarah had come in. He hadn't said anything either. Still, pressing the issue wouldn't help.

"True. Doesn't mean he wasn't right." In a lot of ways Derek still saw that scared little girl cried into his shirt for an hour, back when he was just a stranger with news about her father. That was also the last time he saw her cry. Sitting with his arm around her, Derek thought about how complex she was. So fragile and innocent, but tough and resilient. How she had grown from a lost little girl to a confident young woman. But Kat still needed her big brother.

"True." She speared a piece of watermelon and only made eye contact with the bowl. "Why do you think he sent us back?"

That made Derek snort. "Who can ever figure Connor out?" Not the answer Kat was looking for. "You know what I think?"

Kat couldn't pass that one up. "Metal bad, boobs good." She giggled and struggled as Derek pulled her into a headlock and ruffled her hair.

"Smart alec."

"I try." Kat and Derek sat as the laughter subsided. After things settled down again, Kat spoke. "What do you think?"

He didn't answer at first. Instead, he grasped her hand and held it over his heart. Under his shirt over his heart were two Chinese markings. Kat knew what they meant because she had them as well. They said family and honor. They had them done at the same time. A statement to the world that those things came before all else.

"You couldn't mean more to me if you were my blood." Derek didn't make meaningful eye contact when he said this. That wouldn't have been like him. He didn't really do the whole mushy thing very well. That's why he and Sarah worked together. "I can see that something happening between the two of you and I'm not going to sit here like I have all the answers. Just know you came first. When you passed out last night, my gut knotted itself up cause for a moment there I thought that I had lost you. The only thing I ever wanted was for you to be safe and happy."

"No one is ever safe, Derek." He could barely make out the words, she spoke so softy. So there they sat on the floor, him holding her close and her leaning on him. The moment stretched out comfortably, neither one wanting to break it.

"Could you do me one favor?"

"Anything Derek." She would move mountains from him right now. They had been together so long it made Kat feel like the best family was the one a person got to choose.

He pulled her into a tight hug. "Don't ever scare me like that again."

"I'll try."

A/n: Well, what do my awesome readers think about that. Remember, reviewing is a virtue. Oh and yes, I made up the meaning of the tats on Derek's chest. I have no idea what they really mean, but it seems like it would be something like that.


	12. Chapter 11

A/n: This chapter goes out to lady kryptonite and Dirt Rider, the only two readers who have been with me and reviewed every step of the way. You guys are great.

Chapter 11: Enough is enough

After two weeks, John surrendered to the torture. The things that woman could do to his body made him wanted to beg. If his knees were working properly, John was sure that he would be on them pleading for all he was worth. How did she get to him? No one else had been able the break through the control he had over himself.

Yet, here he was panting and moaning and he couldn't care less. For two weeks, their morning ritual had driven him mad and now he was broken. He had her right there on the kitchen counter that she loved to perch on, her legs on either side of his hips. Someone could walk in at any moment, but John was going to keep kissing Kat until he was completely done with her.

It was time to give her a taste of her own medicine. Since her leg had healed Kat had taken to early morning runs for some crazy reason. By the time John hauled himself out of bed and wandered into the kitchen it would only be a few minutes before she bounced up the stairs, hair pulled back swinging from a pony tail. The weather led her to wear minimum amounts of clothing. Today, it was a pair of stretch cotton pants and a sport bra.

No matter how much he didn't want to stop tasting that mouth that smiled shyly each morning as she brushed pass him to retrieve a bottle of water, they both needed oxygen. John released her lips and ran his down her throat as Kat let her head fall back. He was loving the way her pulse quickened under his touch and the salty taste of her skin after a run.

His hands weren't still either. His fingertips tracing the bare muscles of her back until one cupped the back of her head.

"John." God, the way she breathlessly said his name turned his blood into lava. Kat gently pulled him away from her and looked him in the eye. The brown color had darkened and John could see the storm of emotion brewing within their depths. He knew he would give anything to see them like that again and again.

Kat bit her lip as she pulled his head down to kiss him this time. It was everything John knew it would be. He was in heaven as her legs wrapped around his waist. His hands drifted down to grip her hips and pulled her body even closer. He wanted to fell every inch of her body with his. He wanted to know every spot that would make Kat moan into the kiss.

The sound of his belt unfastening made him pour everything he was feeling into her lips. He would have her right there in kitchen and she was leading him there. He wanted this so bad. He broke away from her kiss and buried his face in the hollow of her neck, trying to rein his body back under control.

John pulled back as the felt of Kat wrapped around him numbed and the sounds faded into nothing. 'Ah, crap. Not again.' The dream faded suddenly as John struggled to hold onto it. 'It didn't even get to the good part.'

He opened his eyes and found that he was laying face down spread across his full sized bed. The irritation made he all but throw the tangled sheets to the side and sit up. John tried the rub the sleep from his face as the dream came back full force. As he wished for a real life replay, he hissed a profanity that would have made Derek proud and fell back on his pillows.

"That's the third time this week you have awoken with elevated heart and respiration rates. Are you okay?" Great, robo girl had caught on to the fact that he was having wet dreams. At least she didn't who they were about. Derek would kick his butt back and froth across the lawn a few times if he knew. Happily with a smile on his face under the pretense of some kind of training. Somehow John figured that brother trumped uncle any day of the week.

"I fine Cameron." Well, he wanted to be fine. It would most likely be best to break the cycle. Step one would be avoiding the kitchen until Kat got in the shower to wash the sweat from her run away. Step two was either stop dancing around the issue and asking her directly what was going on between them or ignore the problem some more. Man, the attraction stuff was hard. There should be rules or something on signals that could be exchanged with embarrassing anybody.

For all the normal life John had, there were rules of engagement he just didn't know what they were. He chuckled to himself as he started thinking in terms of tactics and battle plans. He was such a dork, if that was the only way he could think of talk to a girl.

"What's funny?" Cameron was standing just inside his door looking at him like a complex math problem. There was no way John was going to explain this one.

"Nothing, Cam. What time is it?"

"Eight thirty," Cameron tilted her head as she studied him. "Kat went for a run this morning and if she maintains her usual pace, she will return in appositely ten minutes."

Again, he really shouldn't go into the kitchen and met her for the daily silent time. If that dream was anything to go by the sight of her sitting on that counter with her hands on her knees might lead to a total loss of self control.

"Maybe you should run with her. It builds physical endurance and releases endorphins which reduce stress."

There were lots of reasons that was a bad idea. Mainly, John didn't know how much alone time with Kat he could take. Again, so not telling Cameron that. "I'll think about it." That and half a dozen ways to get sweaty with her.

"It might help if you talk about the nightmares." John chuckled as he wished it was a recurring nightmare. He been dealing with those since his mom first told him about Judgment day. At this point in his life those were in a down cycle, but they would be back. They always came back at some point. No, now he subconscious was making daily occurrences into chances to get hot and heavy. Her coming home for her run, doing laundry, or even when she lean over his shoulder to point out something.

"Not happening." They were different each time, but two things never changed, the look in her eye and the fact that she wanted him too. So, if he was smart he would say something to her. Try to get some clear air about this nice obsession he was developing. He wanted to beat that Rico's face in for talking about her. After, they came home John insisted she take his bed, which she did but turned back over after a few days. Now, being the pervert that he was, the sheets had still gone unchanged because they still held a hint her scent.

John knew he wasn't smart as he pulled on a shirt and moved to get out of bed after shooting Cameron a 'go away' glare. His feet would lead him into the kitchen and he'd pour a cup of coffee. He would prepare a bowl of cereal right between the door and fridge. He would stand there counting the seconds until the sound of her sneakers pounding on the steps warned him to steel himself for what was to come.

Yes, future General John Connor was an idiot, and the fact at he was standing in exactly the same place he stood every morning was proof. Sure enough he was halfway through his Cheerios when the door opened and a very nearly naked Kat bounced in. His eyes were glued. Yep, dumber than a door nail.

Kat felt like such a girly girl. After years eating just whatever, she was putting on weight and soon after her leg healed up Kat noticed that her belly was starting to get pudgy. She did not like that. The reason she gave Derek for needing running shoes and clothes was that a flat stomach and toned legs were needed to fit in. Fat chicks drew attention to themselves. Plus, there may be another reason to push though the miles before the heat worked up for the day.

Derek agreed with her BS excuse and volunteered to give her some lessons hand to hand, even setting up the garage with a punching bag and a mat for people onto. It was a week before she admitted, to herself, why she wanted to get into shape. For the first time she wanted someone to notice her. And that someone didn't seem to care less.

He acted the way he always did when they ran into each other each morning. John just stood there staring at his breakfast. The sports bra and short shorts didn't earn her a single apprising look. Maybe John didn't feel anything for her after all. Mike didn't take into account the fact that the timeline had changed.

Well, a girl had to hydrate. Kat moved past John to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water and hopped up on the counter to gulp it down before heading to bathroom.

The first thought that ran through John's mind when he stole a glance was that Kat had stolen a pair of Cameron's shorts. It took everything in him not to stare and keep forcing down the cereal. Man, he loved that all the running she was doing was toning her legs up nicely. The fitness kick that she was on was going to drive him insane.

True to form, she passed within inches of him heading straight for the water. He looked with all the sheath he had learned over his shoulder as she bent to search the fridge. The view force John to suppress a groan, but he forced himself not to react further. He had to keep it together for a few minutes then the temptation would be over.

She was covered in sweat from head to toe, it even darkened her hair. The flush for the exercise colored her cheeks beautifully. He could almost feel the heat radiating from her skin.

"You know it's kind of weird." Kat said the first thing that came to mind to break the silence. Maybe talking would help break through the ice that had grown between them.

"What's weird?"

"The heat. It was always cold back home." Was she really going to talk about the weather?

John had no idea why she suddenly broke the unspoken rule about talking first thing in the morning. "Nuclear winter." He half turned to look at her. "And this has to be one of the hottest summers on record."

"I like it. It's nice to be warm." Kat braved a smile.

"Well, if you're going to run into the heat drink lots of water. Getting over heated could put you in the hospital." She watched as he gathered his bowl and mug and deposited them in the sink before fleeing the room. Kat wondering what she had said that made he leave like that. As she slid off the counter and threw away the empty bottle, she looked at her options.

One thing was clear. If John didn't want her around, there was one place she could go. First she needed to talk with Derek.

Kat had been MIA all day which could mean nothing, but when she didn't show for dinner John's spider sense was on fire. She hadn't missed one of their sit down dinners since she jumped back. After he barreled out of the kitchen this morning, she just disappeared. He wasn't sure what was worse being around her all day having to resist touching what he couldn't have or the void her absence left. Man, he had it bad.

"So," after Derek wolfed down his first plate and went to get a second, Sarah asked him a question before he sat down, "can Kat take a look at Cameron before she leaves?"

"Yeah, I think she can swing that if it help you sleep at night." Derek smiled as he lower himself back in the chair. But he clearly didn't like the fact that she was leaving. John stopped his self reflection ad started paying attention to the conversation.

"No. I want our bases covered before she moves out." Whoa, Kat was moving out. Why all of a sudden? Surely, she'd say something to him. John back tracked through any time they talked over the last few days. 'Ah crap.' He had basically stopped talking to her. The times they did speak it was like this morning short, matter-of-fact and almost rude. And it all fell on him.

"Mike's looking forward to the help. Rico went off mission after Kat came home and they haven't heard a peep out of the punk since." Figures, Derek would set her up with Mike, those guys wouldn't anything get past them. "She'll only be a phone call away."

John got up and dumped half his dinner into the trash. He didn't feel like eating anymore. He really screwed things up with his not talking policy. The garage light was on. The waiting for some kind of sign was over. There wasn't much time left.

When he got outside, he could hear Kat beating on the punching bag Derek hung up for her. He no idea what he going to this, but she needed to know then if she wanted she could leave. Only he didn't want her a phone call away, he wanted her right here with him.

A bare bulb provided the only light in the bare space. Kat saw John walk in, but ignored him. If he didn't want her in his home, she would give her absence. She threw a kick into the punching bag. 'Take that.'

"Derek said something about you moving out." Wow, a full complete civil sentence. Didn't know he had it in him.

"Yeah." Well, at least she stopped assaulting the bag and moved to the shelf that ran along the back wall. She still hadn't looked his way. Could he hold that against her? Since the terminator shot her, John had been a prick he knew that. Now, all he wanted was to fix this.

"I don't want you to go." There. John never had a gift for words or heart to heart stuff. He rubbed the back of his neck and stared at the floor.

"Why do you care?" Kat didn't turn around, but she could see a very uncomfortable man in the reflection of an old mirror hanging on the wall. Her question seemed to require less distance between them. John was slowly moving in. Kat's muscles tense. This couldn't mean what she thought. Surely, she was misreading the signs.

He had to touch her. John turned Kat to face him, but she still wouldn't meet his eye. He reached out and cradled the side of face in his palm. She leaned into the touch like a cat wanting to be petted. That had to be a good sign, she wasn't hitting him.

"I'm not sure." He lifted her chin until she finally looked up. "I know that talking with you was one of the easiest things I've done. I know that you make it easier to be me. And I know that I don't care if you hate me but I have to tell you that I think I'm falling for you."

Kat had to be dreaming. This could not be happening. She held his palm closer to her skin hoping that it was real. She looked up into his green eyes trying to seeing what he was thinking. His other hand found her hip, but he didn't pull her closer. Something in his eyes made all thought flee for the hills. He also said something but it took a second for her mind to catch up.

"I also happen to know that if you don't stop me I'm going to kiss you." Even though every male instinct said kissing her was right, John waited to give her a chance to reject him. The last thing he wanted was to force this.

"I won't." she barely had the breath to whisper the words. Time stood still as he lowered his lips to hers. It was everything he had dreamed and so much more. It was sweeter, not at all crazed. It was a kiss to the tenth power. The taste, feel, everything. Sure, John wasn't sure if he loved her, but he had time to figure that out.

This was what a kiss should be. It was nothing like a harsh mashing of mouths that she had received in the passed. It was tender, like he didn't want to scare her. Still, she could sense what was boiling under the surface. Suddenly 'John Connor loves me' wasn't cause for freak out.

A/N: Okay, so seriously are ya'll tried of this. There are a few more plot lines I could let play out or it can end. I'll see what I feel like, but this will NOT be the last chapter. I sure someone will let me know what they think.

P.S. I can not believe they kill Derek like that. Just bam, no more uncle. Totally sucked.


	13. Chapter 12

A/n: My reader has spoken. On with the story.

Chapter 12: Murphy's Law

Kat was hot. The A/C must gone out again sometime in the night, a fatality of the heat wave. Still, the hotter the better. After years of never being able the shake off her permanent chill, sweating was a welcome change.

Kat also wasn't sleeping on her couch. At first she didn't know where she was, but then the night before came flooding back to her. The change in sleeping arrangements meant it wasn't a dream as she feared. It had really happen. John had kissed her and the kiss had been good. Remembering the feel of his lips brought on smile.

As much as she liked it just where she was, Kat needed to go on her run. It had become like a religion to her. It was freedom compared to hiding underground. One small problem, John curled up behind her with his arm anchoring her body against him. Being held there was perfect. Even if his added body heat was almost uncomfortable.

"Hey." Kat grinned at the sound of his voice still rough with sleep as he pulled her even closer.

John woke with a smile. He knew who was in bed with him. It had only taken one statement of fact and here was Kat in HIS bed. Awesome. Plus, Kat had said that quite got to her. That was something foreign to him, when silence was something to be feared. She had lived his nightmare, which was another thing that attracted him to her. Growing up with his Amazon of a mother throwing all kinds of training at him and stopping at nothing to keep him safe, John would always have a thing for strong women.

However every hormone in his body groaned in protest to the fact that she worn one of Derek's shirts and a pair of shorts to bed. It was way too much cloth between him and her skin, but his hand still found its own way to her hip right above top of her shorts.

"That tickles." Kat rolled over face to face with and briefly hoped that she didn't have morning breath. Ignoring the fact his hand was still under her shirt, she cuddled closer. She just couldn't get enough of his touch. She moaned and pulled away letting responsibly win the day.

He had other plans and Kat didn't put up any resistance as she was pulled on top of his chest. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I have to get a work out in before it gets too hot." But she didn't move. Kat just laid there with her head on John's shoulder. It was like the spot was made for her fit against. They hadn't done more than kiss last night, but she felt connected to John.

"Why don't you take a day off?" John didn't want her to leave. If she did then the magic would be broken. He closed his eyes as her fingertips started to trace up and down the side of his neck. After the weeks of dreaming her, reality was more tender than he ever thought it would be.

"Not really. Plus, all my clothes are in the living room. And Derek and your mom may get up any moment." While both were true, Kat couldn't motivate herself to get out of bed.

"Then, we should move all your clothes in here." At that, Kat pulled away to look into his green eyes. There was no way for him to know that he basically offered marriage with his offer. Kat couldn't help but grin. At least his mood had improved sometime during the night. It was like a weight had lifted from his shoulders after he came into the garage.

"I'd like that, but Derek…" John didn't want to think about the details right now. He flipped her across his body and had her under him before she could protest. As he stoked her hair away from her mouth, he lowered his head to kiss her, silencing anymore conversation. The way she kneaded his back through his shirt while he kissed her was bliss. He allowed more of his weight to rest of her body and deepened the kiss. As a plan of everything he wanted to do to her ran through his head, the door slammed open.

"John, have you seen whoa…" Derek's first reaction was to turn his back to the intimately entangled couple. John was grateful for that at least, even though he was sure at this point wishing for death might not be a bad idea. His uncle seemed as uncomfortable with walking in on them as John was with being walked in on. "When you guys are..." Derek tripped over his words a little. "Done, I need to see you in the kitchen."

As soon as the door closed John rolled onto his back again. After a minute, Kat started giggling. The are-you-insane look was unstoppable. Her brother had just caught them warming up for the big act and she thought it was funny!!

"Did you see the look on his face?" Kat buried her head in the pillow to muffle the sound. When she came up for air again, she noticed John staring at her like she belonged in a loony bin. She sat up, still smiling. "What?"

"You think its funny that he gonna kill me." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Don't be silly." Kat pecked him on the cheek and bounced off the bed. "Torture maybe, but he wouldn't kill you. You're the great John Connor. It would be like handing the future over on a silver platter."

John looked her over as she stood beside the bed. Rumpled ill fitting clothes. Her hair ruffled and tangled by sleep, with a little help from him. A guy could get use to seeing that sight each day. Kat's smile lit up her eyes as she leaned down and pulled on his hand.

"Come on, if he's up before the dew's off the ground, it must be important."

"All right, I'm coming." John even bother changing out of his PJ's, he just followed behind Kat hoping Derek was waiting to rearrange his teeth as soon as John walked into the kitchen. Instead, he was on the phone.

When he finished scribbling on a scrap of paper, he held out to Kat. She frowned at the address and time with no idea what they meant. "Yeah, she'll be there. Thanks."

"What's this?"

"An appointment today to get you on the pill." John stopped breathing, his lungs just stopped working when Derek said this. This definitely was one of those times when John did not need to present, but moving now would draw attention. Derek was calm now, best not to change that.

"The pill?" Kat didn't like the sound of that. It sounded bad.

"Birth control."

"They have a pill for that now." Kat knew a lot, but sometimes things just fell through the cracks. "You got me up now for an afternoon appointment. I'm going back to bed."

"No, I got you both up because Rick was killed last night."

"Rick, like from Mike's crew Rick." Kat didn't believe it.

"Terminator?" John questioned Derek. Things were starting to pick up speed this morning.

"Don't know. He didn't report back last night and when Mike called his cell this morning a cop answered. They've packed up and vacated the safe house just in case." Derek was pulling the C4 out from under the kitchen sink.

"I can hack the police mainframe. Get the coroner's report." John turned to walk back and retrieve his laptop.

"John, you're with me on this. Kat will get the details." Derek had turned back into the officer he was in the future, giving orders effortlessly. With an 'I on it', Kat left the room and started to boot up her computer on the coffee table. As the hard drive hummed to life, John saw her look back into the kitchen. While she didn't look either of them, the laughter was gone from her eyes.

Derek set a duffle bag on the table with a metal clink. Must be the pipe bombs Derek insisted on keeping on hand 'just in case.' Sarah seemed to really like that idea since all the scenarios to use them involved metal. "The metal's coming with us. Boots to the breeze in five."

"What are we gonna do? John figured it be a run and hide deal. When his mom spoke from the doorway, the first thing he noticed wasn't wearing one of her butt kicking outfits.

"You three are going to set a trap for it at the safe house. Machines are nothing if not logical." It took John a second to process that Sarah wasn't coming with them. If John was in trouble, she was all over him like white on rice on a paper plate in a snow storm. That was a lot of white. Now, she was sitting out.

"Mom, what going on?" The confusion bled into his voice. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." Sarah moved to her son and pulled him into a hug. "Its time. That's all." She knew the day would come when she would have to cut the apron strings, well if she wore an apron. After wrestling back and forth with the issue Sarah realized that John had already decided for her. Two weeks ago, he took down a machine all by himself, and saved the girl. Before he had just barely gotten away or stayed alive long enough for someone to back him up. He was starting grow the man Kyle Reese had told her about, and he couldn't if she always held him back.

Yes, it was time to trust him to stay on his own. That didn't mean Sarah was ready to stop protecting her little boy.

John released his mother and went back to his room for a quick change of clothes. After all one couldn't save the world dressed in their jammies. He was pulling on a light weight jacket when he saw a handgun lying beside the bed. John picked it up carefully and noted that the safely was off and the weapon was locked and loaded. It was his.

Funny, Kat didn't seem like the type that slept with a full cocked handgun in arms reach. That just seemed like something Derek would do. Of course, at first glance she didn't seem violent at all. He briefly wondered how she got it there without him noticing. John thumbed the safely and picked his pistol up from the dresser.

With a gun in each hand, John thought about how the fact that Kat and he had his and hers handguns reflected the realities of his life. Guilt seized his heart because he knew that being near him put her life in danger. No, he would keep her safe.

Tucking his into the back of his jeans, John carried the other into the living room where Kat was pulling a long-sleeved thin gauze like shirt over a sports bra. She heard him enter the room and turned to face him smoothing the material down to her exposed stomach. He could help wrapping his arms around her. Her head came to about level with his chin and she felt so soft against him like she melted into him.

When he eased back, John pressed the pistol he found by the bed into her hand. Kat blushed before she met his eye again. He tucked a strand of her hair back behind her ear. They didn't say anything, but everything went without saying. He wanted her to stay safe. She wanted him to be careful.

Derek called John's name from the door. Time to move out. John grabbed the shotgun from on top of the bookcase and walked to the doorway. He kept his eyes on Derek holding the door and Cameron waiting by the Bronco. He didn't want to look back.

Suddenly Kat grabbed his arm half turning him back to her and pulled his head down to kiss him. When she pulled back, murmured be safe. With that she released him and stood back. John looked her eye one last time and walked out the door.

The trio sat in silence as they drove across town to Mike's safe house. Derek was behind the wheel, with John staring out the window in shotgun position, and Cameron sat ramrod stiff in the back seat.

"You know the future we had a unspoken tradition." Derek said out of the blue.

"What's that?" John couldn't help but wonder why his uncle was volunteering this tidbit."

"If a guy had a girl she would give him a kiss for luck before he left the tunnels." Derek smirked as he said this. He leaned on a driver side door with one hand on the wheel.

"So that was Kat's way of saying she's my girl." John risked a look at the man beside him. If anything the man looked relaxed as he shrugged. John pressed onward with the issue that had been bugging him since Derek busted into his bedroom. "Derek, you and me. We're cool right? I mean she is your sister."

"Yeah, we're cool." Derek looked John I the eye for a second and turned back into the road. "But I'll still break your legs if you break her heart. We clear?"

"Crystal." John's phone rang. Kat's voice came over the connection telling him to put it on speaker.

"What cha got?" Derek asked.

"Looks like it was human. Based on the photos no metal would be that messy." Kat sounded calm but John could hear the undercurrent of her tone.

"That's good right. Just human on human."

"No, John. Someone carved Judgment day into his skin. Someone from the future did this."

"You can't be thinking what I think you're thinking." Derek slowing the bronco down and turned into the safe house driveway.

"They found a note with the body. I have a pic here. I'm sending it to Derek's cell." John watched the fighter throw the vehicle into park and pull his phone from a back pocket. "It's mostly crazy talk but…"

"I see. The serpent." John was feeling a little left out.

"What are you two talking about?"

Derek fielded that question. "There was a group of religious fanatics who thought that God let Skynet take control to bring about the end of the world. Following that train of thought the Resistance was working against the big man, sort of like the snake in the Garden of Eden. Everyone thinks that they died out since, besides bombing some tunnels and trying to kill Connor a few times, they just let the machines have them."

This was just great. Now, some humans wanted him dead too. Sometimes a guy just couldn't catch a break. "But how would they be able to jump someone back?"

"They can't. Skynet, then Connor were the only ones with a machine." Kat jumped in over the phone line almost like her and Derek were taking turns answering.

Cameron got out of the truck and went into the house while Kat was filling the guys into. She came back to the door, and yelled that there was something John needed to see.

"This didn't look good." Derek opened his door and thumbed off the safety. "Kat, we're gonna check this out, then we're heading back. I got a bad feeling."

"I'll take the Reese gut over hard fact any day. I'll have whatever I can get my hands on ready when you get back." The line went dead. John shoved the phone back in his pocket, grabbed the shotgun from the seat and followed Derek into the house. In the kitchen written in black marker was a message.

_I will kill the Serpent in this time by cutting it into three pieces before I sever the head._

There was no name. Dread filled John gut as he ran what little he knew in his head. If the Resistance was the snake then, he was the head. But what or who could the other targets be? Techcom cell in the past. People who would become important later.

However it all became rather pointless as the Bronco exploded outside.

A/n: So enough with the mushy touchy feely stuff. Let's get back to the action and violence. As always hit the button and let me know what you think.


	14. Chapter 13

A/n: Does anyone of a way to keep a muse of running away? Mine just leaves at the most inconvenient times.

Chapter 13: FUBAR

After hacking into Skynet, human security systems were a piece of cake. Plus humans were easy to trick too. All Kat had to do was say she was with some little sheriff department in the middle of nowhere to get access, then no one kept track of where she went. Really, this was beneath her skills. The file wasn't hard to find either. In no time she was downloading the whole thing.

"Do you want some breakfast?" Kat jumped at the sound of Sarah's voice. The older woman had that stealth thing down for sure.

Kat shook her head. "No thanks, I'm kind of all pancaked out." Kat was sure Sarah would go and clean a rifle or something; instead she sat down o the couch. Surprising since Sarah and her never talked really. Sure, they were polite but it seemed like Sarah let her stay because of Derek. Sitting could mean she just wanted to see how things were coming along.

"John's only ever had one sort of girlfriend." Or sitting could mean that Sarah wanted to have a heart to heart about her son. Kat knew she looked confused with the 'huh' expression.

"Okay." Kat stretched the word out hoping by the end that she would have something else to say. Nothing came.

"Her name was Riley and it turned out that she was from the future too."

"Connor sent her back?" Why tell her this?

"Jesse brought her back as part of a plan to get rid of Cameron."

"Jesse? Derek's Jesse? She came back? Connor just said she went off mission."

Sarah leaned forward bracing her elbows on knees. "Well, getting a sixteen year-old girl killed would be off mission."

Whoa, Jesse must have really gone off the deep end after the whole Jimmy Carter thing. Sarah wasn't done yet.

"Riley was to get John to care about her, then Jesse would make her a threat that Cameron would take care of, thus driving John to scrap Cameron." Kat pulled her legs onto the couch and laid her head on her knees. She could imagine how that would affect John. "That poor girl died just because my son liked her. And he cared enough to butt heads with me over her."

"Sarah, I'm not sure what you want…"

"I don't want him to end up alone. You're good for him, not like Riley, and I know he cares about you." Kat shook her head at that. "You passed out before John had his breakdown the day you were shot. What's this?" Sarah pointed at the computer screen and quickly changed the subject. Kat guessed John's mom had said what she wanted to say and that was that. Nothing more to say.

Kat started shifting through the data. "Cause of death was six abdominal stab wounds. Well, that doesn't sound like metal."

"You're right they're efficient killing machines." The way Sarah said efficient came out like a curse. "Are you sure you've got the right dead guy?"

"Yes," Kat pointed to a line on the screen. "See? Identifying marks: Barcode tattoo right forearm. If I'm translating the medical jargon right, the poor guy was tortured before he died. Shallow lacerations three to four inches long over torso and upper body. Why would a machine do that?" Kat was trying to see all the angles, to sort through the fact to the why. It was something she could do very well.

"If metal wanted the rest of the cell, it would have just followed him home and killed everyone there." Sarah caught the look Kat shot her as she added that tidbit. "That's how we met Derek."

"Oh," Kat just kind of figured it just happened. Like the Reese and Connor lines were dragged together by fate. She turned back to the screen and started with the pictures that had been taken of the corpse. On his back, a series of numbers made Kat's blood run cold. "It was human and they were from the future."

Kat point a close up of the bloody number sliced into the skin, and as Sarah saw them she cussed. "Judgment day. We need to call the boys."

"Wait, a note was found near the body." Kat pulled another page up and started reading. "Oh, this is not good. This is so not good."

"What?" Kat could tell that Sarah was slowly climbing up the panic scale in her own special way. She didn't care. This opened a whole new can of worms and Derek needed to know right now. Even if it didn't make sense. She grabbed her cell from the coffee table and dialed John.

"The Blessed End may have an agent here and those fanatics wholly and deeply believe that killing John Connor will bring about Jesus' reign on Earth." Kat hit the send button and started to pray.

John chanced a look through the kitchen window trying to spot anyone approaching the house but the now flaming Bronco obscured most of the view.

"RPG." Cameron was standing up scanning the yard but Derek pulled her out of the windows. There had to be a fault in her programming, because who ever blew up the jeep could still blow up the kitchen and the metal was making herself a target. "Close range. They would have to be watching."

Now, John was kneeling beside a fridge, shotgun at the ready, hoping to God that metal didn't walk through the door. "Why not just kill us?"

"My guess would be that whoever it is hasn't hacked up the rest of the snake yet. These nut jobs like their order." Derek was beside him watching the front door, equally tense. "The real question is do we stay put or make a break for it."

Some lessons John would never forget. This one was a tough one that kept repeating again and again. Sometimes no matter what you choose you still get screwed. Whoever exploded the vehicle knew where they were and could just demo the entire house or they could be waiting outside to gun them down when they made a run of it. Decisions decisions. Plus there was the added element of time. A neighbor had to of seen the Bronco in the driveway and most likely called the cops.

With a mess of illegal weapons and all three being wanted by the law, it was a very bad idea to talk to law enforcement. Using a four letter word he picked up from Derek, John made up his mind. "We can't stay here."

"The window in the last room on the right provides the best cover and is the closest to the tree line." There were times whenever the eerie Cameron calm wasn't just annoying, it was annoyingly useful. Derek and John traded a look.

"The last room on the right it is." As Cameron led the way, Derek nodded for John to follow. John got to his feet. The sound of breaking glass caused John to look back and the world slowed down stretching a few seconds into hours. A grenade hit the tile floor in the kitchen, a bounced between the baseboards and spun like a top in the middle. John didn't think before he grabbed the back of Derek's jacket one handed and tried to drag him into the hall clear of the blast.

The concussion wave pushed John to the floor and starting his ears ringing. They were still inside the ten foot range of the grenade but the wall kept the direct force and shrapnel off them. Well, most of it, a quick glance proved then Derek's lower legs which were still in the kitchen were bleeding. The blast must of also forced Derek's head into the tile putting him under, he couldn't walk like this.

John heard Cameron running back toward them when the kitchen door slammed in with enough forced to knock a doorknob shaped hole into the already battered sheetrock. Whoever this was who had this planned out. The house was a trap. First the Bronco to cut off a quick escape, then the grenade to finish them off. Now the asshole was coming to make sure the job was done.

It made him sick. Was everyone out to kill him? Now, he had to get Derek to safety and fight some crazed zealot. Must be Monday was all that John could think as he released Derek's jacket, got up on one knee, and tightened his grip on his shotgun wishing he had bird shot which though not as deadly as other ammo had a larger spread pattern.

Cameron came up beside he and did a once over for injuries. John grabbed a handful of her shirt and tugged her down. "Get him out of here. I'll cover you."

"John, I should…" John didn't let her get the rest out. He knew she say something about needing to take care of the threat and her programming was just to keep him safe. Derek was starting to come to but he didn't need to be in the crossfire. Cameron could handle the older man weight better than he could in a foot race.

"Cam I said get him out of here." The voice that rung out was full of command without the slightest hit of doubt. He filed that tone away for later, right now he didn't have to register that he was starting to sound like his mother. John figured she would argue with him. Instead she looked him in the eye.

"Yes, John." She bent and pulled Derek up resting most of his mass on her shoulders. John did not wait for them to walk off. He just stood, put his back to the wall and fired a shot around the corner into the kitchen, letting whoever was in there know that they're weren't dead. Machine gun fire replied back. John dropped to his heels against the wall and waited for the shots to quiet.

When silence was broken by metal sliding on metal as a clip was replaced, he offered up a prayer to which ever gods happened to be listening, fired around the corner again and took off down the hall. Bullets impacted the ahead of him just as John drove into the bedroom. Lucky for John, Cameron had taken the quick and dirty tactic and instead of climbing through the window like she had said in the kitchen, she just busted a Derek sized hole into the side of the house. Well, not catching a bullet in his butt dangling halfway out a window would be a good thing. Yeah, for small favors.

He scrambled to his feet and fired a round into the hallway, hoping that the threat of fire would slow his own personal shoot out friend down enough that a plan would come to him. A plan always came if he could stay alive long enough and at this point a plan, seriously any plan, would be great.

John pumped the shotgun, but didn't hear the next shell slide into the chamber. After a few more pumps, the weapon proved that it was indeed empty. John swore again. He ran for the open hole in the sheet rock, then he lean back against the outside wall gripping the barrel of the shot gun like a base ball bat.

What surprised him the most was how he just settled. His breathing evened out and quieted down. His mind was running hundred miles a minute, but his body was steady and ready. Even the panic he normally felt when something was after him was slowly fading as he stood ready to Louisville slugger the prick when he followed John through the makeshift door.

A 9 mm came appeared first, but John didn't wait for the rest of the guy. With every fiber of his being John swung his make believe bat and felt it make contact.

Just as gun went out right in front to him.

Kat didn't have any idea how she managed to talk Sarah into taking her to her doctor's appointment. Take that back, Kat knew, but the subject wasn't something she wanted to think about.

Kat walked into the kitchen as they both waited from John or Derek to call about whatever they had found at the house. She just wrote it off as no news was good news. The boys would definably call if they needed back up or something. Plus, the killer looked to be human. They could take on a human. After all Derek chewed up metal for breakfast and John had a lifetime of training.

Still, Kat knew that sometimes people just died from being stupid. Careless. Cocky. Or just forgetful. One wrong move could mean a dirt nap.

That restlessness led Kat into the kitchen were she tried to talk Sarah into going to with her. She cited all the reasons. They would still be a phone call away. No one would know they were there. It would beat staring at the walls. Finally, why Kat needed to get on what Derek called the pill.

Sarah didn't say much after Kat went into detail about how young children were more vulnerable to radiation poisoning. A lot of babies died right after the bombs fell. Then when the work camps were set up those too young and too old were killed because the machines only wanted prime workers.

Kat knew that the infant killings drew a lot of parents to Tech Com. Some said that not even Moses' pharaoh was that heartless, but then pharaoh had been human. She knew that a child born now wouldn't make, and she didn't want to bring a life into the world if it wasn't going to make it.

So now Kat sat in a little room waiting for the nurse to come back with a discharge slip and the pills that she had come for. The doctor had been hurried but the clinic was busy. The nurse came back after a bit with her hands full.

"Well, all dressed I see." Kat liked this woman. She was sort of what Kat thought a mother would be like. "Well, here's a three months supply of birth control. Remember you'll need to come back before those run out. Remember they won't be fully effective for the first month so here's some condoms to keep you safe until then. And finally these are to manage the pain for now, but if it just any worse or you run out you need to go to the ER sweetie."

Kat nodded, but knew she wouldn't go. Hospitals would take one look at the bullet wounds and burn scars and called the cops. The doctor had told Kat why she was having horrible pains in her gut, but the surgery was the last option. She had been dealing with this for years. It had always gone away before.

But a scared little voice in the back of her head said it had never been this bad before.

A/n: yes, I know I'm evil. Just bare with me its for the best.


End file.
